Within you I lose myself
by dulcety
Summary: Damon kept her as a hostage because she looked exactly like Katherine. She fought against him, hated and disgusted him. He didn't mind, he had long turned off his emotion. But hate and love was such a fine line.
1. Chapter 1

_Rated M for a dark theme, violence and sex. _

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><p><em><strong>December 1st, 2009. <strong>_

Damon tossed the lifeless body of a blond girl on his hands aside to the dark corner of the alley. He licked the remained blood on his lips, sighing in satisfaction. He didn't bother taking care of the dead body, he didn't need to, he was planning on leaving the city right then. It would be somebody else's problem. He straightened up his outfit, ran his hands through his raven black hair to get it out of his face and started walking out of the alley. He was almost reached the main street when he heard a door creaked open behind him.

"You are no longer daddy's little princess, honey." A raspy voice of a man broke into the silence of the night, followed by thick sound of ruffling body.

He heard a whimper of a girl, he could hear the steady cruel beat of the man's heart mixed with the pounding in agony of the girl's. Damon stood over so he was in the shadow of the brick wall, invisible to the new comings in the dark alley.

"Kill me."

Damon froze when he heard the weak voice loud and clear with his enhanced hearing. The voice was painfully familiar, low yet smooth with an edge to it.

"That would be such a waste of your pretty face, honey." He heard the man spoke again, he could tell the man was smiling. "You can be my money tree with this face, this body. Gosh look at you…"

"What are you doing?"

Damon heard the shakiness in her voice, her heartbeat grew frantically faster. A trashcan blocked his view to the door. He could only see the back of the man, standing facing the wall in front of him, probably trapping the girl in between.

"Stop!"

His body suddenly tensed when he heard the scream, the girls started crying and struggling. Damon flung himself out of his hiding spot and in a second he was right behind the two. The man was an old dude, with a fat belly and a wide bald spot on his greasy forehead. His pants were on his knees and Damon wasted no time snapping his neck aside. The dude fell over and Damon gasped when he saw the girl sitting with her back against the wall, her face stained with tears, her upper clothing were violently ripped off.

"Katherine." He whispered in disbelief.

"Please don't hurt me." She cried, shaking, her eyes darting from the dead body of her boss to Damon standing in front of her. "Please."

"Katherine." Damon kneeled down, his eyes wide opened and he lifted a hand, ghostly traced his fingers down her cheek, lifting her chin so he could look into her big doe eyes. "Why do you look so much like her?"

"Hey Big J, what's taking so long?" Another younger man stepped out of the door.

"Fuck!" He cursed when he saw the dead body of the man and took in the scene of Damon and the girl. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at Damon. Before anyone could blink, Damon's hands were on his throat and with a disgusting sound his neck snapped broken.

The girl let out half of a scream before she fainted in shock and exhaustion. Damon once again kneeled down in front of her, this time he took her tiny body in his arms, wiping away the tears on her face and headed back to the road. His eyes never left her face, the face he knew so well.

Elena woke up when it was still dark and couldn't help letting out a painful whimper. Her whole body was hurting. She looked down to see she was wearing a man's long-sleeve shirt. Panic, she searched for any signs to see if she was raped or any kind of sexual assaulted. Her inner felt fine, she touched in between her legs and it felt normal, no sore, nothing. She sighed in relief and tried to sit up and cried out in pain. She gave up trying to move and turned her head around only to yelp in shock. She covered her mouth, eyes widening looking at the sleeping man lying next to her. The cover hung lowly on his waist, his raven black curly hair tangled on the white pillow, half of his face was buried in the pillow but she could still see how handsome he was. His strong dark eyebrows that arched above his eyes, the eyes that framed in thick lines of dark lashes, his red lips pressed together in a tight line in his sleep, his muscular body glowing with his smooth, porcelain skin. Elena stayed still for a minute then she remember last night. The dead bodies of the two men. She almost got raped. Tears flung into her eyes again and again Elena tried to get out of the bed, away from this killer, ignoring the pain on her body.

"I wouldn't do that."

Elena froze when a velvet voice coming from her back, she looked back and gasped when she saw a pair of piercing blue eyes staring back at her, his eyes were so beautiful yet so cold and detached, it sent chills down her spine trapping in his stare.

"Are you going to kill me?"She asked, tears streaming down her face

"What's your name?" He propped his hand under his head, still looking at her.

"You killed them." She whispered

"Or would you prefer I let you be raped and dragged back into the brothel?" He raised his brows but his eyes remained cold and emotionless.

"No." She said in a small voice

"What's your name? and I don't like repeating myself."

"Elena." She said, he kept his eyes on her, waiting, so she finished herself. "Elena Gilbert."

"Gilbert." He repeated. "How old are you?"

"17."

There was a moment of silence of after that. He was still staring at her and Elena looked away, something in the way he looked at her bothered her, it was like he looked but didn't see her at all.

"Where am I?" She finally asked

"Far away from home." He smirked a little.

"I don't have a home." She said, more tears coming to her eyes.

"Why were you where I found you?"

"Why do you need to know?"

"Answer my question." His voice remained soft and velvety but the way he said it put an intimidating edge to it.

"I was sold."

"Where's your family?"

"Dead."

"Hm."

Suddenly he reached over and wiped away the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. It was surprisingly tender and Elena turned her head to meet his eyes again. Still cold and detached despite the warmth of his hand.

"Who are you?" She asked shakily, remembered the way he killed the men with his bare hands.

"You want a name to put to the face or really want to know _who_ I am?" He smirked, the back of his fingers lingering on her skin.

"Can I know both?"

"You're pretty demanding for your fragile self." He smirked.

"The name is Damon Salvatore." He drew his hand back and sat up. "For the second part, I'll show you better than I can tell you."

He walked over to her edge of the bed and sat down next to her. He flipped the cover off of her, ignoring Elena's effort of clinging to it. He started to unbutton the shirt he put on her earlier.

"What are you doing?" She tried to sit up and push him away. Damon stayed still, working on the buttons.

"Calm down." He huffed and leaned down closer to look into her eyes, she could see his pupils dilated.

"Get off of me!" She shook her head and tried to push at him again.

Damon's brow shot up in a surprise look. His compulsion didn't work on her.

"Calm down. I won't touch you." He got back to his normal emotionless face, this time using the weight his voice and aura to control her.

Elena stopped struggling but kept her hands across her body. He opened the shirt and looked down on her tiny body. Her stomach and ribs were covered with bruises, some were bleeding. He held his breath not wanting to let the smell of her blood distracted him.

"You bruised pretty badly, probably fractured ribs…"

He continued on inspecting her injuries but Elena couldn't focus on anything else but the thought of this man gazing at her almost naked body clad in only underwear. She yelped when he pushed his fingers down on a bruise under her ribcage.

"Pretty bad." He said. "Which is why you will need this."

Elena watched in horror as he put his wrist to his mouth, she watched as his face shifted, his fangs came out, his eyes turned bloodshot with visible veins under his eyes and he bit down on his own flesh, bleeding his wrist.

"Drink." He casually brought his bleeding wound to her mouth while his face shifted back to normal.

"What? No! Oh my God." Elena gasped, covered her mouth, feeling nauseous.

"Drink it. My blood will heal you." He brought his wrist closer to her and Elena could smell the distinctive smell penetrating her nostrils. She bent over the edge of the bed and gagged.

"No! What are you?" She cried, gagging harder.

Damon looked down and chuckled when he saw the wound had healed itself.

"I could leave you bruised and injured but that would be inconvenient for me to have to take care of a fragile human."

Elena's eyes widen when she spotted the healed wound on his wrist. She tried to scoot away from him.

"Don't come near me."

"Don't be dramatic." He smirked, bring his wrist to his mouth again. Watching the whole thing the second time didn't lessen its impact on Elena. Her whole body was shaking, she had never been more scared in her life. She pressed her hands harder on her lips, to the point almost choking herself.

"You only made this harder for you." He glanced over her.

Before she even blinked, he was right in front of her, he pulled her hands down with ease before his lips crushed on her.

Elena gasped, putting her hands on his shoulder trying to push him off of her when she felt his lips trying to part her and terrified to realize the taste of blood in his mouth.

"You'll regret it if you try to bite me." He spoke on her lips before crashing on them again. He thrust his tongue into her mouth. Elena thought she would gag again as he brought the blood into her mouth but instead the only thing she could feel was him, his tongue, his soft lips. Her breathing got shallow as she tried to catch her breath, she swallowed and Damon pulled away. She was out of breath, embarrassed when she found herself leaned in, longing when he pulled away.

Damon sat back, licked his lips before looking down on her body. She followed his gaze and saw her bruises started to slowly fade away until they totally disappeared. She poked a finger at her rib, pushing it deeper but she felt nothing, no pain.

"Better." He nodded casually. "And for the answer, I'm a vampire."

"What?"

"Yes, as in feeding on blood and undead." He smirked. "Also for the record, you're with me from now."

"What?"

"You look exactly like her and compulsion doesn't work on you. I need to figure that out." He said, more to himself.

"You're a vampire?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to kill me?"

"I haven't thought about that yet."

She just stared at him, his face still in that emotionless look yet still strikingly handsome. She couldn't comprehend. She felt restless and confused and tired and alone more than ever. It took a toll on her and she started sobbing uncontrollably, she broke down into tears, buried her face in her hands.

"Not now." He said quietly before taking her into his arms.

He lied them back down on the bed, letting her cry into his chest, soothing her by rubbing up and down her back. Elena wasn't sure why but she found herself feel somewhat happy and relief whenever he touched her, a feeling almost near to reassurance and she felt calmer and better.

* * *

><p><strong><em>While I'm not complaining about the sweetheart Damon has turned out to be lately on the show, I still enjoyed picturing him as a dark prince in my mind. It will be a lot darker than my other stories as I want it to be. <em>**

**_Review and let me know your thoughts/questions! :) _**


	2. Chapter 2

_I don't condole any type of self-harming. I was just inspired, more like haunted with the idea because we just found out this case with one of our friends. _

_Rated M for dark theme, violence and sex. _

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><p><em><strong>December 2nd, 2009.<strong>_

Elena got out of the bed after half an hour trying to confirm with herself that last night was not some ridiculous nightmare or delusion her mind made up. She looked around and realized she was in some kind of hotel room. And she was alone. She found the bathroom and started cleaning herself up. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. She had lost much weight, her skin lost its natural glow, her lips were pale and her eyes looked dead. Other people wouldn't be happy seeing themselves physically broken down, but Elena found a sick pleasure when she saw herself getting worse and worse. It somehow comforted her and made her felt right, felt better, felt like she being properly punished for not dying along with her family that night in the fire. After brushing her teeth and a good shower, she went looking for the clothes she wore the night before. She found them in the trashcan in the corner of the room. She dig into the pockets to find her small purse, the only item she really owned and fished out a small photo that got burnt a little on the edges. It was her family photo a year before the fire. She took out a small box and went back to the bathroom, locked the door behind her before sitting down on the cold floor.

"Hi mom. Hi dad. Hi Jeremy." She looked at the old photo, lovingly brushed her finger on the faces of her family. She placed it down on the floor next to her.

"I'm being kidnapped or kept hostage by a vampire." She took the box and opened it, pulling out a blaze. She unhooked the leather bandage around her wrists that she had started wearing since she started cutting herself to hide the scars.

"Yeah Jeremy, for real. A vampire. He looked nothing like Dracula though, nor Count Orlok. He's ridiculously handsome instead. Weird hah! No Jer, no Twilight jokes." She continued, started a cut across her inner wrist. There used to be scars there but now her skin was smooth and flawless. She watched as the blood oozed out and started on another line.

"Last time we talked I was in the brothel. I should start writing a book or something. Life has been busy with me." She laughed. There were already several cuts on her skin. She moved to the other side, flinching a little when her left hand couldn't control the blaze exactly and some cuts were deeper than others.

"Don't worry mom. I'm not scared." She smiled but tears started to flow. "If he kills me, which I think he will sooner or later, I will be finally with you again. I have nothing here to live for any more…"

The doorbell rang. She got startled and the blaze sunk deeper into her skin, she picked it out and cleaned up her scene, keeping the picture and the box in her hand, putting the leather binds on her wrists and headed to answer the door. She hesitantly looked into the viewer and saw a lady in server uniform standing outside. She opened the door but kept the chain in.

"Ms. Gilbert?" The lady asked, looking at the part of her face through the open gap of the door.

"Yes."

"I have a delivery and a message for you, from Mr. Salvatore."

She unlocked the safety chain and took the big bag from the woman along with a piece of folded paper. The woman looked at her in her messy form still dressed in Damon's shirt but didn't comment anything, said a polite goodbye to her and left.

She closed the door and tossed the bag on a couch, opened the paper he sent for her.

"_We'll be out for lunch. D._" The note read.

She went to open the big bag to see it was full with new clothes and shoes, even with some lingerie.

"How thoughtful." She said as she touched the soft material of the silky material of the underwear.

She threw herself on the bed, closing her eyes, just as ever, she felt empty and pointless.

* * *

><p>"Why are you not dressed?"<p>

Elena opened her eyes to meet the ice-cold blue eyes staring back at her. She sat up, not looking at him and started to pick out an outfit from the pile on the bed.

"Sorry. I fell asleep." She murmured, clutching some clothes and headed for the bathroom.

"Did you hurt yourself?" Damon frowned, he could smell the blood lingering in the air, from her.

"What? No." She tightened her jaw, walked faster to get to the bathroom.

"You're bleeding." He appeared right in front of her and Elena bumped into him and tumbled backward.

He grabbed her wrist to balance her and Elena hissed in pain. Damon didn't miss a beat of it and his eyes fixed immediately on her wrists in his hands. He ripped the pieces of leather off and for the first time the calm ocean in his eyes stirred with waves, unfortunately from anger.

"Liar liar pants on fire." His lips twitched into a cold smirk as he spotted the cuts on her skin. In another heartbeat, Elena felt herself being shoved down on one of the couch and she saw Damon sat himself down on another, in front of her.

"Let's talk." He said, his voice still perfectly melodic contrasted with his ever unreadable look in the eyes.

"When did this start?" He looked at her, waiting.

"Last month." She said dryly.

"Why would you want to cut yourself?"

"My house burnt down, along with my parents and brother." She said and as always tears flushed into her eyes. "But not me. I was there too but I didn't die."

"Do you want to?"

"I do."

His eyes narrowed, he studied her for a moment until he leaned back in his chair. Elena wiped away her tears, took in a deep breath, waiting.

"You look too calm for someone who is being held captive by a vampire. Or did I make a wrong impression?" He chuckled.

"You could kill me if you want to."

"Ah. You're expecting me to do the dirty work that you're too coward to do."

She snapped her head up and glared at him. Damon was taken back a little by the fire in her eyes but he managed to keep his face flat of emotion, a thing he had come to master perfectly.

"You know what would be better than death? I could turn you into a vampire. Once you're turned, everything will be heightened. Senses. Strength. Stamina. Tolerance. Emotion. Characters. Traits … Guilt." He paused. "An eternity of guilt, Elena. And you won't be able to kill yourself as a vampire. As I said, everything is heightened. So does the will of living, the survival instinct."

Elena just sat there, speechless.

"If you plan on secretly doing these things to dwell in your guilt until someone else does the deed and end your life for you. I could turn you right now. Giving you more than enough time to do it, to feel as much guilt as you want about the things you could never change for the rest of your existence." He leaned forward, looking up at her, which made his blue eyes darkened into a dangerous look.

Elena gulped, breathed in heavily.

"The alternative of it, is…" Damon reached over to get a crystal glass and pulled out a pocket knife. He slit through his palm and squeezed the blood into the glass. "this." He pushed it towards her.

"You drink this, heal the damned things on you and you made a promise to me to never do it again, or never would you lie to me about anything else. And make sure you keep your words." He cleaned up his hand with a tissue paper.

"So which one is it?" He sat back in his seat. "I'm not into fixing you. Just that it will be inconvenient for me to be around you when you're bleeding all the time and not tearing your throat out to drain you myself." He said, his voice as light as air.

"So what are you into doing with me?" She snapped.

"You haven't answered me which way you want this to go." He arched his brow. "You don't get to question me with another question."

Elena looked down to the thick liquid filled in the bottom of the glass and swallowed. She found herself already considering the nasty taste of it when she had to brought it through her mouth into her system and she cried because he was right. She was a coward. She wanted to but she couldn't bring herself to doing it, ending her life. How many times had the blaze went deeper and she stopped. How many times had she challenged others to kill her. She slowly reached for the glass, bring it to her mouth, holding her breath and gulped quickly at it. She put it down and covered her mouth, trying not to vomit and swallowed it.

He watched her gagging and struggling with her own body until she reached over and grabbed the water bottle and down it into her throat, washing the taste away, catching her breath and her heartbeat went to steady. The cuts healed, leaving her skin smooth, flawless.

"Good girl." He leaned over and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Now go change."

He stood up and walked over to his desk on the other side of the room.

She was about to walk to the bathroom herself but stopped and turned around to look at his back.

"What would you do, had I done the other way?" She asked

"I'd rip your heart out. Simply kill you." He replied with his ever nonchalant tone, not even looking back at her.

* * *

><p>"Eat your food." Damon said, looking down at Elena who hadn't touched a thing in her plate across the table.<p>

"Do you feed all of the people you kidnap?" She smirked. The fact which he had been repeating a few times since they met, stating clearly that he needed her around for his own reasons and purposes, not because in any way he cared about her had pissed her off and thrown her into this sarcastic and cranky mood.

"Funny you ask. Usually I'm the one to feed on them. They never lived long enough for me to consider the thought." He smirked back, his handsome face looked even more beautiful when his lips stretched into that smile but his eyes stayed solid in its emptiness. Even his good look pissed her off now because she hated it when she couldn't hate his face, his being as much as she wanted to.

"I'm not hungry."

"I'm not asking if you are. I'm asking you to eat your food." He said slowly but that edge of authority crept back in his voice.

"I can't eat if I'm not hungry." She said stubbornly.

"You seem to like things the hard way, don't you?" He squinted his eyes, lacing his finger together and rested his chin on them, looking down at her.

"What are you gonna do, in this restaurant full of people?" She smirked. She knew it was stupid but she just happened to want to push his buttons.

"And what are you gonna do when we're not in a restaurant full of people?" He smiled back at her.

"I'm not scared of you." She said, despite the pounding heart in her chest.

"That's not what it sounds like." He pointed his finger at her chest, grinning.

"Why do you insist on me eating the damn thing?" She frowned, irritated and also embarrassed that she couldn't even hide her own body's reaction from him.

"I don't like being seen walking around with someone who looks like she's on the verse of starving to death."

Elena stayed still and Damon exhaled unnecessarily. He tightened his jaw, reached over and pushed the plate closer to her.

"Have I told you I don't like repeating myself?" His eyes got darker and for a second Elena thought she saw them turned red.

She swallowed and picked up her fork, decided not to piss him off more tan he was.

"Who's Katherine?" She asked, chewing her first bite.

"You just can't keep your mouth shut, can you?" He glared at her, trying to keep his emotion in check. This girl was starting to get on his nerves. She doesn't get scared of him as much as he wanted her to.

"Wrong question." She murmured, taking another bite, which made him feel a little relaxed seeing her obey him. "So can you tell me why you keep me?"

Damon groaned low in his throat. He thought for a second she would shut up. She looked at him innocently with her big chocolate brown eyes, a look he would never see on Katherine.

"Why haven't you tried to run away from me?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Because I have nowhere or no one to run to." She said trying to keep her face seem cool and collected but her shaky voice gave it away.

Damon smirked, this time because he was amused, not because he wanted to look sarcastic or intimidating, seeing her trying one of his tactics of masking her emotion amused him.

"I answered your question. It's only fair you do likewise." She pointed her fork at him. "Why do you save me if you're only into killing us human? Why keep me around? "

"Two things." He cocked his head aside, keeping his eyes on hers. "You're the dead ringer for someone I know. I want to know why and how."

Elena bit her lips, thinking about what he said for a moment.

"Is it Katherine? That was what you called me in the alley. I look like her?" She asked.

"You only need to know what I let you." He said and leaned back in his seat.

"Fine." She murmured, noted to herself that this Katherine was a touchy topic. "What's the other?" She continued, not letting him get away with answering the question.

"I was bored. One of the down sides of being alive for forever. Running out of things to do."

"Right." She let out a small laugh, suddenly lost her appetite. There he went again, stated clearly that everything he had down with her had nothing with her being herself, Elena Gilbert. Just because she looked like someone else and because he was bored.

"Is something funny popping up in the pasta?" He raised his brow.

"Nothing." She said, still not looking up and focus on eating her meal.

Damon waited but she kept silent for the rest of the time they were in the restaurant.

When they came out and started walking up the slope, heading back to the hotel, which was only a few blocks away, she started stealing glances at him, darting her eyes between his profile and her steps.

"What is it now?" He smirked, knowing so well whatever the questions were they were already on the tip of her tongue.

"You have reflection. And you walk in the sun!" She said immediately, pointing at their reflection in the glass windows of the shops they walked by.

"I do."

"And you ate things with garlic in back in the restaurant."

"I did." He smirked, looking aside at her focusing face. She looked eager and focused, like when a kid tried to put the puzzle pieces together. Again, a look he had never seen from Katherine's persona.

"What about holy water? Stake through the heart? Crucifix? Vampire wives?" She blushed right after the last words left her mouth.

"I can shower with the so called holy water only if it's sanitary to. Yes, a stake through the heart kills a vampire, as well as the sun or decapitating. Sticking a crucifix in my face only makes you look stupid. And no I'm not married." He smirked again.

"But we are walking in the sun!" She asked after a moment of thinking.

"This is a gift from a witch." He showed her the ring he wore on his left middle finger. "Protecting me. Vampires burn to dust in sunlight." He said, his face turned cold as well as his inside at the reminder of his being a damned and cursed force in nature.

"Oh." Elena said and lowered her head again to watch her steps.

"Anything else?" He raised his brow looking over at her.

"Um. Where did you go this morning?"

"Feeding."

"Does that mean …"

"Does it mean I just killed someone this morning?" He looked over and met her gaze, he didn't look away.

"Did you?" She swallowed dryly.

"No I didn't. I can feed without killing the person. I'll compel them to forget the attack for their own good and my own free from drama."

"Compel them?" She asked in confusion.

"We can compel human to do as we wish. Compulsion is just one of many things we are given with to be the predators."

"You can?" She gasped.

"Oddly, my compulsion doesn't work on you." He turned to look at her in a confused look.

"You tried? When?" She yelled.

"You're the first. I'll have to look into that." He said to himself more than anything and leading their way into the hotel lobby.

"What are the other down sides of being a vampire?" She asked when they got back into the room.

"Have anyone said you asked too many questions?" He went to his desk again, not looking at her.

"I'm curious. Not every day I ran into a vampire."

"Did you just make a joke?" He turned around, looking at her.

"What?" She turned away, unable to hold his gaze. "I just, I don't know, maybe because of the pasta. I'm feeling good and … energetic." She bit her lips.

"Maybe. Or maybe because you consumed my blood."

"What? Why?"

"Vampire blood creates some sort of hype, … energy in the human body. That's why some are addicted." He explained, getting back to his work on the desk.

"There are people addicted to vampire blood?" Her mouth gaped in shock. "How do you know?"

"I ran into a few. A few others came to me."

"They just asked for your blood?"

"I have to let them have a taste of it first so they know what they're hooked into." He smirked.

"You just give them?" She asked curiously.

"Blood exchanging between vampire and human during sex is normal. It's just the way we do it."

"Oh." She blushed as she visualized his words. "So you don't just eat them. You sleep with them also." She didn't realize she had verbalize her thoughts until she heard something like a hiccup and a cut short laugh from him.

"So they're all women." She asked

"Men, women. Human in general, who happened to like the way our blood hype up their body, emotion, feelings. A type of drugs I would say."

"Yeah. But I mean, the ones from your experience, they're all women?" She asked again.

"Yes." He nodded, until something flashed his mind and he turned back completely at her. "You think I might be intimate with men at some point?" He felt a ridiculous mixture of feelings inside of him, not sure if he wanted to laugh or get angry.

"Huh? No!" Elena blushed harder, she could feel her cheeks were burning. She didn't even think about that, she was just thinking about how many women he had been sharing blood and the thoughts of blood exchanging during sex of him and those women in a Dracula Braham Stoker's style in her head. "No! I didn't say that!"

Damon found himself fond of the rosy color on her cheeks and the way he could feel her blood heated up when she flustered and blushed like that. The way her body reacted and the heat its radiated was similar to the warmth of a bonfire in the middle of a chilly night, it made him wanted to get closer to bath in that warmth. He blinked his eyes a few times before relaxing his face into a non emotion look again.

"Pack your things into the smaller suitcase under the bed. We're leaving." He ordered.

Elena realized the shift in his voice. He went back to giving order without directly addressing her. She frowned. This man was having a serious case of mood swing.

"Where are we going?" She asked

"To someone who have answers for my questions." He replied, getting used to answering her endless questions.

"When will we leave?"

"Nightfall." He went to get his own packing started. "Now stop asking." He added when he saw from the corner of his eyes she was about to speak again.

* * *

><p>Elena looked in shock as she watched Damon talked to the hotel manager in his perfectly polite and charming manners. There was no traits left of the cranky and mood-swing, control freak she had seen, and absolutely no way to see the vampire who kills when he talks in a calming tone to the lady.<p>

"Of course we will keep the room up and ready any time for your come back, Mr. Salvatore." The lady pulled her red-lipsticked lips into a shy smile, she kept blinking at him.

"That would be very nice, Ms. Bells. I've enjoyed my stay here." Damon smiled back at her and the woman was obviously melting under his gaze. "However, if anyone came asking for me, you've never seen me, make sure your staff get the same message." He said, his voice flat and even when he leaned closer looking deep into her eyes.

The lady's face went blank for a moment before she blinked again and the girlish smile returned to her face. "I will say I've never seen you and my staff will too. Any thing for you, Mr. Salvatore."

Elena whispered when she walked with him out the entrance. "So that's how you compel people? With your eye thing?"

"What eye thing?" He smirked, found it slightly laughable at her choice of words and the childish and almost innocent way she always formed her questions. She was acting like a child exploring its surrounding world, everything was new and everything triggered her curiosity.

"We're going by car?" She asked when she took in the sight of a shiny navy blue Chevrolet Camaro parking in a lot in a dark end of the hotel's back alley.

"Or would you prefer walking from state to state?" He snorted.

"Ok. I'm just…" Before Elena could finish her sentence, she yelped as something sharp pierced through the flesh on her upper arm. She looked down to see a slight scratch across the outer part of her upper left arm. She heard someone else groaned in pain and she turned to see Damon was pinning a man onto the brick wall a few feet away from her, into the dark alley, choking him with only one of his hand.

"How stupid are you?" She heard Damon as she ran closer to them. She saw him used his other hands and crushed the man's hand, which was holding a stake, pointing to Damon's direction.

"You killed her." The man managed to spoke when his throat was still clasped in Damon's hand. "You killed my wife."

"Damon!" She yelled as the man started to choke and couldn't breath, his face turned purple.

"Get in the car!" He groaned at her.

"Stop! You're killing him!" She insisted, shaking as she saw the guy's eyes started to roll back.

"I said get in the car!" He finally turned to look at her and she realized his face had turned.

The man took the advantage and plunged the stake into Damon's stomach which was right at the level of his hand. Damon growled angrily and with one quick move, he twisted the man's head and he fell limply on the ground. Dead. Damon crouched down, coughing as he tried to get the stake out.

Elena hesitantly ran to kneeled down in front of him. She didn't bare to look at the dead man's body.

"What's wrong? Why aren't you healing?" She was panic when Damon coughed up some blood.

"Vervain." He uttered, tossed the bloody stake aside and crawled closer to the man and bit down on his throat.

Elena screamed and ran to the car. She held her head in her hands, trying to forget the sucking sound she heard when Damon buried his face in that man's neck. Everything went down on her. She forgot everything else about him but the monster she just witnessed. The one that killed without a blink and feeding on human's blood. She was shaking, feeling the fear that finally came to her properly. She let out a startled cry when she heard footsteps outside the car and the door on the driver's seat opened and she pushed hers off. She pushed herself to run as fast as she could, didn't bother to look where she was heading, she panted, forcing her legs to move, running away from the dark terrifying alley.

* * *

><p><strong><em>I've been getting pretty good feedback on the start of this story. I'm so inspired to write more. Review and help my inspiration flow with your direct feedbacks! <em>**

**_Here I'll spill you spoilers for upcoming chapters : _**

**_1. Not all of Elena's family died in that fire like she thought they did. _**

**_2. Katherine and Stefan coming into the picture._**


	3. Chapter 3

"No! Stay away from me!" Elena screamed in frustration when she saw the dark silhouette of Damon blocking her entrance to the main road.

She took a sharp turn and darted into the dark alley on her right, forcing herself to run faster. She took turns, left and right, throwing herself in the maze of connected alleys.

"Are you dumb or stupid?"

Elena cried out desperately when Damon casually stood in front of her, his expression even and smooth, but she noticed the slightly shakiness in his voice and if she was not mistaken there was a light trembling from his body too.

"Help!" Elena scream to the top of her lung, backing on her feet, stretching the distance between them.

"You wouldn't want to make me angrier than I already am." He said, his voice got a bit harsher but he didn't make any moves.

Elena turned on her heels and headed running again. She didn't make it to a few steps until Damon blocked her way and knocked her back off. She fell on the cold and damp ground, panting. Suddenly she noticed the wet front of his shirt, his wound was still bleeding, his body actually was shaking. He followed her gaze and smirked.

"Don't think because I'm wounded that you stand a chance." He stepped closer. "I've been drinking vervain everyday. I'm guessing that fool of a hunter did the same, which means his blood wasn't every useful to me… I'm trained, so I'm not knocked out dead with vervain in my system, but my body can't heal fast enough without pure blood."

Elena felt her back touching something stiff and realized she was trapped, a dead end.

"Which is unfortunate." He chuckled. "for you."

Damon kneeled down in front of her, Elena watched as his fangs sprung out, his eyes turned blood red, she froze, waiting for the pain to come

"Hello? Who is it? I heard screaming." A young, tall guy stepped out from the corner on their left. "Oh my God! Step away from her! Miss, are you ok?" He tensed when he took in the scene in front of him.

"Oh she is now." Damon turned to him and said in his melodic voice. "Thanks to you, her white knight in shining armor." And he flung himself onto the young man.

Elena only felt a gush of wind as Damon vanished in front of her. She looked over to see the guy fell motionless on the ground like a cut off puppet as Damon stood over him, wiping his mouth before he straightened up, letting out a sigh and turned back to her.

"Little rebellious for tonight, aren't you?" He sat down again in front of her, brushed her knotted hair away from her face.

"Don't touch me." She spat, her vision were blurred as tears flushed into her eyes. "You're a monster!"

"You get it right. Finally." He snorted. "Took you long enough."

"Fuck you! I hate you, you're disgusting!" She spat, tears wildly fell out of her eyes.

"Too bad you're kinda stuck with me for good now since no one will come looking for you."

She held her hand up to hit him. Damon caught her hand mid air with ease, he clamped his fingers around hers, crushing them as he leaned closer, his eyes darkened with anger.

"I wouldn't want to do that."

Elena panted, catching her breath as she whimpered in pain. He kept his face inches away from hers, his tight clasp around her fingers, enjoyed intimidating and overpowering her with ease despite her struggle.

"Hurt. It hurts…" She finally gave up and said, out of breath. "It hurts! You're hurting me…"

Damon's face softened and he let go of her hand. Elena was still difficultly catching her breath, held her hands up against her chest and cried. She hated herself for being so helpless against him.

"Why do you always have to make things go the hard way?" He smirked, pulled away a little to gaze down at her. Suddenly he leaned in totally and placed a kiss on her cheek. He could taste her tears on his lips as he lingered on her skin.

Elena was so confused by his sudden change in behavior she didn't even notice when he dragged her into his arms and sped back to the car in seconds.

She stayed idly when he started the car and started driving off. Tears never left her eyes as she was trapped in a trance where she didn't know what to feel or think about any more. Pieces of images and memories of the day passed through her brain without any comprehensive meaning. She lost track of time and place and slowly she drifted to sleep, physically and emotionally drained.

* * *

><p>"She's human!"<p>

Elena started waking up to the chatter in the room. Someone had been talking and it woke her up from her exhausted sleep. She realized someone who just spoke was a woman.

"Very." Damon chuckled.

Elena tensed when she heard his voice and decided to keep her eyes closed, her breathing even.

"A doppelganger."

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious. What I want to know is what exactly does that mean and why does it happen?"

"A doppelganger is a supernatural force. Very rare because if encounter, one tend to destroy the other."

"Why?" Damon pounded, Elena could hear the curiosity and slightly shock in his voice.

"Because even though they have the exact same physical appearance and share the same bloodline, their characters, personalities, souls … in general the spiritual elements are contrasted, one against the other."

Elena started to notice the heavy breeze of some herbals burning in the room. It should suppose to be calming but from what she just heard, Elena found it hard to calm herself. She was a what? She was against who? What the hell were spiritual elements ? It was too much for her to process.

"One more thing. My compulsion doesn't work on her. And she's not wearing or consuming any vervain that I'm sure. Then what is the reason?" Damon spoke again, his voice was demanding and somewhat serious. At least it contained a tone of some concern rather than his smooth and nonchalant usual voice.

"She might be given with some protection because of her being a doppelganger. A danger in itself."

Another brief of silence swept over the room as neither of them spoke.

"You are not planning on taking her as a substitute, aren't you Damon?"

"I hate it when people make assumption about what I do, Bree."

"It won't end well. Don't dwell on the past, love."

Elena was surprised when she heard the woman called Damon with endearment and even more surprised not to hear any snarky comeback from him. She felt the urge to turn around on the couch she was lying on to see the woman's face.

"When a doppelganger appears, it's an omen. Bad things will happen. Death. Loss. All things you don't need to take on yourself."

Elena heard shuffling, and what sounded like a kiss. She was bracing herself not to turn or sit up to see what was going on.

"Take her back where you found her. Stay away from her, Damon. It will only do you good."

"Don't tell me what to do." Damon said shortly and stepped away, heading to the couch Elena was lying on.

"I just want you to be happy. You deserve it." Bree followed him.

They were standing behind the bench of the couch looking down on Elena and she could feel their movement above her.

"I know a fair number of people who will disagree with that statement." Damon smirked.

"They don't know you."

Elena could tell Bree was hugging him and it made her a little uncomfortable. She didn't know why, maybe it was because she felt like she was invading his privacy, or maybe because she was just not comfortable knowing someone was showing intimacy with him.

"Good night, Bree. It's lovely to see you again." Damon said, finality in his voice. The conversation was over. He bent down and took Elena in his arms, carried her up and started walking.

"Think about what I said, Damon. It's not worth it."

"Let me be the one to decide." He walked out of the door and Elena heard it slammed shut after a moment of hesitation behind them.

He walked silently back up a staircase, heading back to the road. Elena felt his familiar scent covering her and realized how much she had got used to having it around for the last few days. His strong arms wrapped around her, supporting her weight by holding her close to his strong chest. She shouldn't be feeling as safe and comfortable as she was and it bothered her.

"You can stop fake sleeping now."

She almost jumped when she heard him talk. She slowly opened her eyes to look up at him.

"I'll give you 6 over 10. Decent acting but the concerto your little heart was playing gave you away." He looked down to meet her gaze and Elena immediately looked away, scared to face his deep blue eyes.

"Who was that?"

"A witch. An old fling. A source for information and secrecy. Pick one."

"A friend?"

"I don't have any friends." He smirked

"That's sad." She murmured.

"And you do?" He arched his brow at her

"I used to." She bit her lips. "Put me down."

"You seem to like giving orders that you're in no position to make." He replied, continued walking up the stairs.

"I can walk by myself. Put me down. This is ridiculous."

"You were so much more pleasant to be around when you're asleep." He shook his head. "If I put you down, would you try to run again? Not that it'll be any problem to get you back. But I'll be pissed."

"I won't run." She said with a small voice.

"Can I trust you?"

"As much as I can trust you."

"Touché." He laughed shortly and put her down on her feet when they finally reached the top of the stairs.

Elena squinted her eyes to look at one of the neon signs on the shop nearby.

"Chicago? We're in Chicago?"

"And we're staying. For now."

"Why?"

"Things to be done and people to meet."

* * *

><p><strong><em>December 9th, 2009.<em>**

Elena flipped the last page of the book and sighed, getting it back to the shelf and roamed her eyes over to look for another one.

It had been a week since she came to Chicago. Here she was in what supposed to be Damon's apartment, a very nice and well decorated with a great taste she would say, stuck. They shared the same bed every night. Don't get your mind wander too far. It was nothing closely related to romantic or erotic sharing the bed. He only came back when she was already asleep and left before she woke up. All the door and windows were locked solid, no telephones, no tv, no forms of communication except for the giant multi shelves of books opted to the walls. Elena took that as the evidence that he didn't trust her a bit after her outburst before. She barely saw him in the last few days. The fridge was stocked with full of groceries, drinks and other necessity. She did make dinner a few times and would leave some. They were all untouched when she found them in the mornings after. Elena thought she would feel easier and better without him, her captor, being around. But somehow it was not right, some nights she would stay up trying to wait for him, but sleep always defeated her.

Elena spent most of her time reading and staring at her family photo until she fell asleep.

She flipped a few pages of the new book before tossing it aside and crawled into her side of the bed, propping the cover around her. She didn't know how long had she fallen asleep or when but she stirred when she felt the shift on the bed.

"Damon?" She asked sleepily, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.

"No. Freddy."

"You're not funny." She turned around to see him, sniffing in his scent that was stronger when he was really there rather than just the lingering on the cover and pillows. Even in the dark she could still see his handsome features inches away from her, lying on his side facing her.

"I miss you."

"What?" Elena's eyes bugged out. She couldn't believe what she just heard. "You what?"

"Is this some lame attempt to make me say it again?"

"You miss me?"

"That's what I just said." He grinned, there was a sparkling in his eyes that she had never seen before.

"Well then maybe you should stop avoiding me!" She frowned. This guy was putting her on a confusing spin and it annoyed her

"Ok. Noted for future improvement." He said lightly, shifted closer to her and cup her face with his hand stroking her cheek with his thumb like he had done times before when she was crying.

"Stop doing that!"

"Doing what?"

"I don't know… It's like you have hundreds of different personalities. One minute you are gentle and warm and the next thing I know you kill people without blinking. It's … terrifying."

"You should be terrified."

"I know. But when you're like this, I'm not… I can't. Why can't you always be like this?" She reached up to get hold of his hand, her hands were shaking but her heart jumped in her chest when he didn't pull back.

Instead, he leaned in closer and like always, without a warning, he kissed her. Elena responded almost too eagerly. She felt the softness of his lips, tasting the intoxicating scent of him in her mouth when their tongue fought a battle, her hands went to grab at his hair and he rolled up to get on top of her. His hands went to peel away the cover in between them. Elena could feel his belt crushing on her belly, his weigh on top of her, she hesitantly lift her knees on either of his sides, straddling him. Her skin was burning, her breath got faster and heavier, her chest was beating so fast even she could hear its beating. They broke the kiss as she panted for air and Damon pulled her top over her head. His hands roamed on her hot skin leaving goosebumps everywhere and he bent down to capture her breast with his mouth. Elena let out moans, feeling the need and heat her body was aching with under his touch. Damon's mouth left her breasts only to trail wet kisses up to her collarbone, down to the crook of her neck. Elena shivered when he nipped at the sensitive skin. Damon brushed her messy hair away, his lips never left her skin.

"Ow! What are you doing?" She yelped when she felt a piercing pain shocked into her body.

Damon bit her, right at the spot of the throbbing pulse on her neck.

"Stop!" She frantically pushed him off but he didn't move one bit. It was hurting badly. She reached her hands to his face to pull him away. She touched something warm and wet. She looked in horror at the red blood covered her fingers. Elena started screaming and struggle under his body. Damon finally lifted his head up in a swift, ripping her flesh out with him. Elena screamed in pain as she looked at his face in front her, fresh red blood dripping from his mouth. He was smirking, the smirk she had known so well, the ice blue eyes that never stained with any trails of emotion, he looked down at her before his face shifted, his fangs showed and he went down for another attack.

Elena woke up with a scream still on her lips, panting. She sat up, panic. She reached for her neck only to find her smooth skin. She was sweating and shaking like a leaf but thankfully still fully clothed. It was a dream. No. It was a nightmare. Or to be exact it was a pleasant dream until it turned into a nightmare.

"Bumpy ride to Dreamland?"

She screamed again, startled when she heard his voice behind her from the bed.

"Please stop screaming. Your heart's mini rock concert was already giving me a headache." Damon spoke slowly, still lying on his pillow, looking down at her.

Elena sat still, staring back at him, her mind full with the images from her still vivid dream. Her hand placed tightly on the side of her neck, she could still feel the pain when he bit her in the dream, tearing her throat out.

He saw the fear in her eyes and somehow it irritated him. This girl was really so much more pleasant when she was asleep, totally oblivious and silent and he could watch her for hours without her knowing. When she was awake and looking at him with her big brown eyes, talking to him without really speaking with those eyes, questioning and judging his actions, showing fear and anger towards him, it bothered him because she looked like Katherine but acted nothing like her.

"We're heading out at 8 tomorrow. Sleep." He said, his voice flat and monotonous when he turned to his other side, facing his back at her.

Elena found herself considering sleeping on one of the couches because she was sure she didn't want to lie down next to him with these images in her mind. After deciding it'd be better not to get any more attention from him, she slowly crawled back under her blanket and tried to force herself to sleep. She cursed silently when she realized her heart was still pounding in her chest. Images from the dream flushed back into her brains, unfortunately this time, they were the beginning of her dreams. She shifted uncomfortably, wondering if vampires could read mind. She tried to find a more comfortable spot on the pillow, taking in even breaths trying to calm herself down but her heart seem not to slow down any time soon. She blushed when she remembered him peeling her clothes off of her, his lips on her skin. She shook her head violently to shake the images away. She was embarrassed, terrified and confused as to why she would having dream like this about him. Suddenly it was too hot for her, she shrugged out of her blanket, shifting again, even the comfy bed started to become strange and weird. To make it even worse, she was fully acknowledged of his presence by the musky scent that was penetrating her senses, the weigh on the other side of the bed. She scooted closer to the edge, trying to put some more distance between them.

"Would you mind stop wiggling around?" He scowled

"Sorry." She froze but her heart pounded even faster and stronger as the adrenaline rushed through her.

Damon let out a hefty sigh and with one quick movement he turned around and dragged her back against him. He placed his hand over her stomach and rested his forehead on her back.

"I'll guess it was a nightmare." He itched his palm up a little, stopping on her ribcage where her heart pounding violently under.

"What are you doing?" Elena gasped at his sudden intimacy, his hand were dangerously close to her breast, and she could feel his hot breath on her back.

"Trying to get you quiet so I could get some sleep." He chuckled, staying still in his position.

"Damn it! You can't touch me, kiss me whenever you want to!" She exclaimed, trying to get out of his hold. Too bothered to even question if vampires need sleep.

"As a matter of fact, I can."

"What is wrong with you?" She gritted, starting to feel tears welling in the corners of her eyes.

"I can tell you that nothing is right about me." He smirked.

She groaned, trying to peel his hand off of her only for him to grab her hand and took it tightly in his, his arm still around her waist.

"You can't win this. Just calm down and sleep. Kick, yell, scream tomorrow."

"I hate you." She huffed, a tear rolled out her eyes onto the pillow.

"Got that loud and clear the first time."

* * *

><p><strong><em>December 10th, 2009.<em>**

He acted normal the morning after. Or that was just how he had always been. Gentle, polite, calming and collected whenever they were in public. They had breakfast, took their time for some coffee but neither spoke a word to each other. Elena couldn't put her thoughts to rest. She didn't know how to act around him any more. She was more confused with herself more than anything, more than the fear and threat she felt around him now. Whenever his hands moved an inch closer to her to reach for the sugar she would tense. That hand was all over her, well, at least in her dream, but it was vividly real. Those lips that she seemed to have a tendency to stare at rather than his icy eyes made her flustered and embarrassed like she was doing something indecent. She was so occupied in her own thoughts that she didn't register when they stopped in front of a high school gate. He stood idly, leaning his back against a wall in front of the entrance. Elena finally looked up and took in her surroundings.

"Are we waiting for someone?" She asked, curiosity got the best of her.

"Oh she talked. I thought we're on silence treatment, little miss pouty." He cocked his brow at her. She just wanted to wipe that nonchalant smirk off of his face.

"We are waiting for someone." He chuckled, added when he saw her refused to talk after his little commentary.

"Who?" She uttered.

"I was out, looking for an old acquaintance the last few days." He said slowly. "But seemed that I ran into one of yours on the way."

Elena frowned. Who could have he ran into? All of her family died. She was the only Gilbert left. The only. She was deep in her thoughts when she heard him talk.

"Annabelle." Damon said, his voice even and amused as he fixed his eyes to someone in front of him.

Elena turned to see a tiny girl with her dark thick hair framing her delicate face, she looked pale, even paler when her mouth gaped open as she looked at Damon in shock.

"What's wrong?" Someone was walking back to her.

Elena looked at the back of the young man as he placed a hand on Anna's shoulder. "Anna. Are you ok?" She felt her heart tug at the familiar voice.

"Jeremy?" Elena spoke weakly.

The guy froze for a moment before turning back to face her.

"Jeremy." Elena repeated, feeling something erupted inside of her when she saw her own brother standing in front of her in flesh, very much alive.

* * *

><p><em><strong>alright alright so neither Katherine nor Stefan had appeared in this chapter yet. I decided to break this into two. be patience, my love :) I'm not 100% happy with this chapter. but I decided D and E need time to warm up to each other don't you think? so take it slow and easy but here I give you some with Elena's dreamy world. do you like it? ;) <strong>_

_**my question for you is do you want to see Jeremy as a vampire? or not? **_

_**This story was getting a lot of alerts but only 1/3 of that on favourites and reviews. Show some love and leave me a review so I know your thoughts on this! **_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Rated M - dark them, violentand sexual content**_

* * *

><p>Damon listened closely to her heart beating, a habit he had developed without knowing during the weeks they spent together. He had to keep his intimidating stare dead on Anna but that didn't keep him from listen and notice every movement or reaction Elena's body was producing.<p>

"But I thought you're dead." Elena shook her head, stepping up to grab at Jeremy's arm.

"Excuse me? What?" A familiar shocked and somewhat offended look flashed on his young face and Damon smirked. Surely he was her brother, must be, that brow arching, big round warm eyes, stubborn forehead and delicate features on his face ensured of that.

"You died. In the fire. With mom and dad. I woke up and they told me you were all gone." Elena was loosing it, tears wildly flew as she shook her head but keeping her grab on Jeremy. He reluctantly tried to shrug her off.

"I'm sorry. You must be mistaking me with …"

"No!" She screeched.

"Elena."

Elena hitched in her breath. It was the first time Damon had ever called her by her name. It weirdly calmed her down in minutes. He gently peeled her hands off of Jeremy. She looked back to see his blue eyes looking at her, somewhat comforting without words.

"I'm sorry." Jeremy frowned apologetically when he saw the hopelessness and hurt in her eyes. "I don't remember knowing you honestly."

"Oh Annabelle dear." Damon suddenly said in a sing-song voice. "You compelled him."

"What? You're…" Jeremy snapped, turned to face Anna who was still looking like she had seen ghosts. "No you didn't. You promised you would never…"

"Save it for later. We need some place to talk, now." Damon looked around suspiciously. He had a feeling of being watched, two vampires standing here with two Gilbert kids, one supposed to be dead, one a doppelganger definitely not very subtle. Chicago was a vampire hot spot, ears and eyes could be everywhere and from anyone. He wouldn't risk it. "Your place. Lead." It was clearly an order.

Anna gulped before turning on her heels to lead, ignored a furious and confused Jeremy right behind her heels, raining questions on her. She only turned around once to throw a look at Elena. Something like fear and pure shock in her look bothered and gave Elena a bad feeling.

* * *

><p>"He won't vanish in a poof of smoke you know." Damon smirked when they got into Anna's small apartment's living room.<p>

Elena threw him an annoyed look. She had been holding tightly onto Jeremy through the short walk to Anna's and Jeremy clearly felt awkward as hell. He took the excuse of taking off his jacket to get out of her hold and walked over to Anna.

"You need to explain." Jeremy whispered.

"Oh that I'm sure. She does have a lot to explain." He pinned his eyes on the girl.

"Is he right?" Jeremy pounded. "Did you compel me?"

Anna stayed quiet and pale as she had been. Damon was loosing his last bits of patience and was considering some sort of _physical_ stimulation when the girl finally spoke.

"She's supposed to be dead. She's not allowed to be alive."

Two sentences, one message, but it sent different reactions to the individuals in the room. Elena held her breath.

"You do know her?" and Jeremy insisted.

"Could you please take her to your room and give us some alone time?" Damon instead stared into the kid's eyes, letting his words sinking in as his pupils dilated.

"Erm… Come, I'll show you my room. Maybe we should give them some alone time." Jeremy blinked a few times before turning to Elena and said enthusiastically.

She threw him another disapproving look. Damon darted his eyes to her, rolled them when he saw the stubbornness showing clearly on her rigid expression.

"Would you too give us a few moments to catch up…. please Elena?" He said with the most patience he could muster. Somehow he had a feelings that if he had pushed her she would have pushed back. So he went for the sugar-coating tactic instead.

She was shaken the minute her name slipped out of his lips. She turned to avoid his gaze and follow Jeremy into his room.

"Explain. How do you have anything to do with the Gilberts?" He snapped the moment Elena shut the door behind her.

"Why are you tracking me down?" Anna deflected, lifting her head.

"You're in no position to ask, Annabelle." He choked her with his hand, grabbing her throat.

Anna turned, her fangs sprung and she spit at him furiously.

"This could get really messy." He tightened his hold and she choked harder. "I'm older, stronger, and worse I'm very impatient right now. Answer my question."

"You're not the first one to find the doppelganger, Damon. Katherine did." Anna managed to speak, struggling in his steel hard hold.

Damon let her go, feeling a sudden rage washed over him. "And where do you fit in the picture?"

Anna lowered her head, hesitated. It had to be clear that Damon was not a man of patience. He thrust her hand into her ribcage, stopping near her beating heart. Anna yelped in pain.

"Do not make me ask twice." He gritted.

"Stop!" Elena and Jeremy barged back into the room and Jeremy jerked at the sight.

He opened a drawer and pulled out a stake, aiming for Damon.

"Before you could get near, her heart will be no longer in her chest." He said boredly, not even turning his head to look.

"She promised she'd spare him!" Anna coughed up some blood. "She'd spare Jeremy's life if I did what she asked!"

"I see." Damon pulled his hand out and allowed Jeremy to rush over and caught Anna into his arms. "You fell for this mortal. Pity."

"Looks who's talking." Anna snorted and his eyes darkened.

"Watch your tongue." He glowered, about to strike at her again. Seeing Annabelle brought back memories he didn't want to remember and it kept him on edge.

"Stop! Stop hurting her!" Elena yelled.

"Stay out of this." He stared at her intensely.

"No! You could just ask her normally without hurting her!" She looked back into his eyes, despite the lump in her throat and her pounding heart.

Damon rolled his eyes when he saw her rushed over to help Jeremy to get Anna on a couch. He threw himself down the other one.

"You two do know that vampires heal right? She's not as fragile as she looks." He snorted. They were too human.

"Yeah. But you're as much a dick as you look." Jeremy bit back before sitting down next to Anna. "Thank you." He looked up at Elena and said in a softer voice.

Damon was about to snap back but he was caught by surprised when Elena walked over and took the side of the couch next to him. He could smell the scent from her hair stronger and feel her body heat. And it distracted him for a moment.

"You knew Jeremy back then?" Elena asked once she settled down the couch next to him. She did it unconsciously, like she was just supposed to be on his side of this conference.

"We… Katherine and I came to town once. She saw you. She needed time for some researching because she was really surprised to find her doppelganger. So she asked me to stick around and keep an eye on you. I approached Jeremy." Anna said slowly, her voice was softer. The genuine concern and caring Elena was showing her made her less skeptical of this girl.

"Seemed like you managed to keep your hands on him too." Damon smirked.

"Katherine came back. And I've never seen her so shaken, and scared I would say." Anna continued, ignored his little commentary. "She found out about the curse."

"What curse?" Damon asked before anyone. He was focused and serious again. If something could scare Katherine, he wanted to know what it was.

Anna stood up and all the eyes in the room followed her as she walked to a book cabinet and pulled out an old dusted book.

They all leaned in curiously as Anna spread the book open on the table between them.

"The doppelganger curse." Anna sighed.

Elena frowned, trying to figure out the meaning of the ancient looking symbols, drawings on the pages. She was about to ask what it was when she saw the look on Damon's face.

"What is it? What does it say?" She swallowed dryly. He never looked this angry, or afraid? She couldn't tell.

"If one found their doppelganger, it's an omen of one's death, loss and agony." Anna sighed and Elena nodded her head, Bree had said the same thing. "The second part, which not very widely known, is that if encounter, it means their lives and fates and cross each other, one must destroy the other because there's only one allowed to exist."

"That means…" Elena was in shock.

"Either you dead or her." Damon finished her sentence. "I'm surprised she let you know about this." He looked pointedly at Anna.

"She didn't. I did my own research on her after fleeing. We're talking about Katherine." She snorted distastefully. "She was gonna use me. She wasn't about to let Jeremy live as she said. I overheard her saying that."

"So…?" Damon raised his brow.

"She wanted the Gilbert to be gone. She wanted to make sure that in the next years to come, no other doppelgangers will reappear. So when she asked me to burn everything down, I faked Jeremy's death, like I didn't make it to save him, but I did, then I erased his memories of anything related to the Gilbert and took him away." She trailed off, turning aside, avoiding Jeremy's gaze.

"What?" That was all Jeremy could say

"I'm sorry Jeremy. You're Jeremy Gilbert. She's your sister. I didn't have the right to mess with your mind, but I had to…" She turned to look back at him, her eyes watering.

"You killed my family?" Elena whispered in disbelief.

"I didn't set the fire. But it was me who drugged you … to make sure no one escaped." She shook her head. "I know I'm no innocent."

"But Katherine is a Pierce." Damon cut in as if he didn't listen to the conversation between the siblings and Anna. His focus was on something else.

"I honestly don't know about that. There must be a turning point in history that merge the two lines together." Anna shook her head.

"But why are you alive?" Anna looked up to eye Elena. "You were all unconscious when the fire started. I watched until the flames consumed half of the house. You couldn't have escaped."

"I don't know. I woke up in the middle of the ruins. I had a few burns but nothing severe. No one could explain why." Elena spoke slowly as she recalled the horrible accident. "It was like someone placed me there after the house had burnt down they said. I was lost. I couldn't cope with people telling me my brother and my parents died in a fire. I lost everything after one night and…" She choked, tears won over her and words lost her.

Damon blinked, fighting the urge to put his hands on her, soothing her, wiping her tears away like he would if they were alone.

"You saved her?" Anna eyed him.

"No." He replied. "I found her after all that."

"I was going crazy. I wandered around, refused to live in the help center or the orphanage. A woman found me on a bench in the public park one night, freezing and starving. It was all nice and kind until she sold me to the brothel." She snorted bitterly.

"Then who?" Anna asked bewilderedly.

They fell in silence after her question.

"Give me back my memories." It was Jeremy who spoke. He looked at Anna then to Elena.

"Jeremy…" Anna sighed. "It was for your own safety…"

"Give me back my memories! You promised you would never use compulsion on me! You lied to me from the very beginning. This was a lie all along!" He raised his voice.

"No. It's not. I'm sorry!" Anna broke into tears.

Elena felt sorry for her. Despite her involvement with their family's loss, she could tell Anna loved her brother.

"I'll leave you lovebirds to fight. I'm keeping this." Damon huffed, standing up from the couch and swept the heavy book into his arms.

"But…" Elena protested. She didn't want to leave. She needed to talk to Jeremy.

"And I'm also keeping this." He sped over and slipped a ring out of Anna's index finger before anyone could see what was happening. Anna yelped when her skin started to burn under the rays of sunlight shining over her through the window.

"You bastard!" She huffed when she backed against a shadow corner of the room, letting herself heal.

"Couldn't risk wasting my time to track down your little running feet again, Annabelle." Damon smirked and headed to the door.

"No. I'm staying." Elena crossed her arms and stayed still.

"It occurred to me that you're under the impression you're no longer my captive today and have the capability to do as you wish?" He said coldly. "Wrong. Now move."

"I'm not leaving! Not until…" She looked over to Jeremy, desperately.

"We won't run. Not before I got everything clear… I promise." He nodded at her before looking back at Anna.

"Good. Enjoy the day." Damon smiled wickedly when he opened the door and held it open, waiting for Elena.

She fought back the weak tears coming. She walked over the table and gave Jeremy a crushing hug, longing for a moment before pulling back.

"I'll come back, Jeremy. Please don't go anywhere."

* * *

><p>"You could have just left me with them. Until you come back. I won't run." Elena said sadly as they walked down the street once again. She was considering running back to the place where there was Jeremy ever since she stepped out of there.<p>

"You might not notice. But I don't trust Anna. I'm surprised you want to be with a vampire who tried to kill you once." He smirked.

"We could have just stayed. She would give Jeremy his memories back and…"

"I doubt that."

"What?"

"You're alive. And if Anna considered you a threat to Jeremy's safety, she wouldn't be very eager to let him remember his relation to you. If we had stuck around, she would just found excuses after excuses to not do it until I ripped her to shreds out of my frustration."

"You… Unbelievable.." Elena stuttered. "I have to go back. Jeremy needs to remember…"

"Which is why I spare them their alone time." He continued, grabbing at her elbow when she turned and tried to run back the street. "She wouldn't, couldn't say no to that kid. He got her wrapped around his finger." Damon smirked. Anna was already in too deep. She already handed her heart over to that Gilbert kid on a silver plate. "Tragic."

"So what are we doing now?" She asked, buzzed.

"Either you dead or her." He scolded, his eyes darkened. He stopped on his feet and turned to look at her. "And as far as I know, if Katherine got her hands on you, you're as good as dead." He tugged a lock of hair behind her ears, his eyes wandered on her face, he stepped closer. "You're just human, too weak, too easy to harm."

She swallowed dryly, suddenly Jeremy and the whole events in the morning slipped her mind for a second. How would she able to concentrate if he was this close to her, his face, his body separated from her by thin air. He seemed to lean in closer, his blue eyes locked with her brown ones short after she involuntarily drifted her gaze down his lips. Was he about to kiss her? Elena thought. Elena swallowed harder, holding in her breath. It was like magnet.

"You need more help." He spoke and pulled away.

She blinked a few times as reality came back to her and hurried to follow his steps.

"Damon?" She said after a while later

"Yes, Elena." He replied and she flustered, still not used to hearing him call her by name. She would never know he was starting to like the sound of it too.

"Thank you." She said firmly.

"For?"

"For taking me to my brother. You didn't have to. I would never know."

"I was looking for Anna, the kid just happened to tag along. No need to get sentimental." He smirked.

"Right. Never mind then." She rolled her eyes and absent-mindedly stomped her feet harder than needed.

He looked at her hair waving as she marched, smiling slightly before caught up to her and bent down a little to her side.

"You're welcome." He whispered in her ear and grinned when she gasped and shivered when his breath brushed her skin.

They ended up at a bar with a neon sign blinking the name Bree's. He made his way to the staircase next to the door and walked down to the basement. Elena was curious now, maybe she finally got to see this woman.

"Are we …?"

Suddenly her air got knocked out of her when Damon pinned her against the brick wall and clamped his hand around her mouth. Her eyes widened in shock as he placed a finger on his lips and threw her a warning glare. He finished the last few stairs and yanked the big door open without knocking.

Elena's eyes shot up as she took in the interior of the room. Everything was trashed and looked like they survived after a big bawls. She instinctively get closer to Damon, couldn't complain when he kept his place in front of her, blocking her vision with his shoulder. She heard Damon hissed and peeked over him to see what it was and hitched.

There lied in the corner behind a counter full of crystal jars a bloody mess. An young woman with her caramel skin and curly black hair lied in a pond of blood flooding from a big wound on her neck and several bites on her body. Her eyes wide opened in a blank stare into space. She then noticed there were blood everywhere. On the counter, on the wood shelves, on the black leather couch, the rug … everywhere. It seemed like it was not an easy fight.

"Damon." She couldn't help but get a hold of his shirt in her hands, felt like gagging as the smell of human blood penetrated her nostrils, making her nauseous.

He sped over to the bunch of the jars holding a variety of herbs before turning to her and yanked her towards the door. In a blink, they were back on the road, next to the lit up neon sign.

"What happened?" She panted, shaking a little.

"Katherine happened." Damon exhaled, he had been holding his breath the moment he caught the smell of blood on the staircase.

"How do you know?" Elena recalled the horrifying scene downstairs and shivered.

"She had been in that room. I could sense that … I was the one to turn her." He said slowly but Elena couldn't help but flinch at the deadly tone of his voice.

"Does that mean…?"

"Does that mean she knows you're very much alive?" He turned to look into her eyes and for a second Elena would say she saw her own fear reflected in those calming oceans. "Yes, Elena. I think she does."

* * *

><p><strong><em>On the other side of the city. <em>**

He sighed a shivering sigh throwing his head back as she deliciously licked her way down his torso. He groaned when she toyed with his hardness through the fabric of his pants.

"Someone's in a good mood." He pinned her down on the bed before she could handle his belt buckle. "Did you have a nice breakfast?"

"Very delicious." She licked her lips wickedly. "Almost as delicious as you." She arched her back up and started rubbing him with her inner thighs.

"I can see your meal refused to be placed on the menu." He ran his hands over her blood stained top. Katherine hated it when human blood ruined her outfits. It must have been quite a fight he thought.

"A little fight before the kill always entertains me." She pouted.

"I know." He grinned and ripped her top in half before yanking the other clothing off of her.

"You're so hot when you're aggressive." She threw her hands above her head, letting him rake his eyes over her exposed body in the most provocative pose.

She moaned and closed her eyes in pleasure as his tongue and hands explored every inches of her body. She hissed when he bit her inner thigh, closely to her sensitive parts. He licked the blood right before her skin healed itself and moved his tongue to her hot core. She jerked as pleasure overtook her body when his tongue played along her slit. He was a softie when he was and a killer when he wanted to be. And right then she was completely at his mercy. She yelped when he thrust his fingers into her and thumbing her clit at the same time, hard and forceful. She was close, she only needed a few more seconds before she reached her peak. And he stopped.

"Stefan Salvatore! What the hell you think you're doing?" She seethed, looking down at him as he kept his hands on her knees, keeping her legs spread, letting her opening contracting like crazy without touching her.

"Now would you tell me why are we back to Chicago?" He bent over, hovering on her spread legs but careful not to touch her with any inch of his naked skin. He grinned cheekily as he looked at her panting and heaving, all hot and bothered.

"I needed a change of scenery. Now stop talking." She was almost screamed in his face. She was pleasantly and amazedly surprised at Stefan's come back at her for dodging his question with sex as he asked her last night about this when they first checked in to the hotel room in Chicago.

"You hate Chicago, Katherine. It's crowded, full of witches and old enemies." He smiled down at her, pressing his hands slightly so her legs spread even wider.

"I have my reasons." She said almost breathlessly. It was killing her. She needed him inside of her immediately or she might just black out with overdrive of _needs_.

"Hmm." He ghostly ran his finger along her wide open slit. She trembled like a leaf in a strong wind. Being a vampire didn't help controlling your sex drive or sexual needs if not heightened them. One of the things she cherished being a vampire, the sex was mindblowing. What with heightened senses. "Does any of them involve my brother being here?"

She shot her eyes open, looking intensely into his dark green eyes. Her red lips slowly twitched into a seductive smile.

"My my… Someone's jealous." She growled and flipped them over, wasting no more time to slid herself on his already rock hard member.

"Oh Stefan" She moaned and started to move up and down, driving herself to what she needed. "You're bad, mean, sexier when you're jealous." She moaned louder, satisfied when she finally got him to hit at her right spot.

"That didn't answer my question." He flipped them over with ease but keep thrusting into her, his own voice got a little breathy. Remind you, he might be a vampire, he was also a male, a very horny and hot and sweaty at that moment.

"Damn it! No! I'm not here for your pathetic of a brother!" She cursed at the painfully slow pace he decided to keep. "Would you shut up now and fuck me?"

Stefan grinned and released his restrain as he pounded into her with full force of vampire speed and strength. They went at it, assaulting each other with aggressive and hungry touches, kisses, bites. When they finally got apart hours later, both exhausted and dazed in their own leg-weakening multi orgasms, Stefan spoke again.

"But you do know he's here don't you?"

"It's almost a century already, love. You still have doubts? And jealousy towards him?"

"Should I?" He looked down at her messy hair and sweated face, stroking his fingers slightly on her cheeks. "You loved him first."

"He loved me first." She corrected it. "But I chose you." She lowered her head, drawings circles on his bare chest with her nail. "I chose you, Stefan."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Phewww! Did anyone also feel hot and bothered? ;) <strong>_

_**There you go some Steferine goodness. I promise when it's finally Delena it would/should be 10 times better :D **_

_**All of you lovelies who are on alert, please show some love and review please! I'm loving each and everyone of the reviews I'm getting! **_

_**So anyways, I let Jeremy be human and (better) ship him with Anna! Delena would grow much more next chapter when they realise how much they need and want each other. You'll know why it took Damon god damn long to put moves on the girl. On the other hand, Stefan is kinda hot when he's bad and hot isn't he? ;) **_

_**See you all next chap. Review now! **_

_**xo**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Rated M - dark them, violent and sexual content**_

* * *

><p>"Stop the car!" Elena screeched, clutching tightly at the handle of her seat, her eyes widened in horror as the car sped down the road. "Damon, stop the car!" She repeated, almost begging.<p>

He ignored her, hands firmly on the wheel, eyes fixed on the road and mind completely elsewhere. He actually wanted to screw everything and tracked Katherine down even if it meant he had to flip the entire city up side down. But of course he knew that was what she was trying to do, getting him to track her down, putting Elena out without protection. And of course, his brother would be on her tail. Just the mere thought of it frustrated him. Damon was a doer, not a thinker, but under this given situation, he couldn't be reckless, he needed a plan, because he was not alone, he got her to be worried about. He didn't give it time to process why he felt the need to protect Elena or made sure that she was safe even if it meant he couldn't act like his nature. He convinced himself that it was because he didn't want Katherine to have what she wanted.

"Damn it!" His trance of thoughts was cut off when Elena yanked the wheel from his hand, trying to pull the car over.

He managed to save the car from flipping over as its tires skidded on the road with an ear-piercing sound, trailing off its lance when he stepped on the brake suddenly.

"Have you lost your mind?" He yelled, when the car finally stopped on the side of the road. A few cars pass by and honked at him, someone gave them a finger through the windows along with a few vulgar curses.

Elena's face was paled out of any color, too shocked to even notice that this was the very first time he raised his voice and seemed faltered with a glimpse of emotion. She seemed like she just realized what she had done and might have caused a terrible car crash.

"Can't … We can't leave, we can't go away like this. Jeremy. I promise him…" She stuttered, trying to get her mind to tune in with her emotion.

"Well your promises won't be valid if you're dead. Didn't you see what happened to Bree? In case you missed it, her head almost got torn off of her neck and she was a century old witch!" He pounded his fist on the wheel, surprised at his own outburst.

"Damon, please." Tears welled up her eyes. He was taking her away from Jeremy, the only family she had left, the only reminder she had of the beautiful past she had had, before any of this craziness happened. "Don't take him away from me." She placed a hand on his arm, desperately trying to make him feel what she was feeling.

"Un-fucking-believable" He shook his head, looking away from her watery eyes. He was pissed, at himself now. The moment she looked at him all puppy-eyes his brains were already running on a way to get her back to her brother. He was pissed because his impulsiveness was now controlled by her, her needs and demands.

"Please! I will do anything you want, I only ask for this. Let me see my brother again, please." Her tears fell and he knew his battle against her was destined to be lost.

He tightened his jaw. Plan A was to get her away from Chicago, tucked her in a human resident after compelling the owner to not let anyone else in and stayed at least 10 feet away from any entrance of the door and by all means kept Elena in the house. Even if he had to drug her to sleep to get her stay in there then came back and took care of Katherine for good. Plan A was definitely no longer an option. He frowned, looking at the teary Elena sitting in his passenger seat. Plan B then. He huffed before pulling his phone out.

Elena watched his every movement with wary eyes. He tried to block her out again. He didn't like how she was affecting how he acted and decided things this much.

"Alaric." He said the moment the other end picked up.

"Damon?" To say Alaric was surprised was an understatement. "Damon Salvatore?"

"How many Damon do you know?" He scolded. "Remember when I saved your ass from a nest of vampires, Ric?"

"What do you want Damon?" Ric sighed.

"I like the way you're thinking. I want you to return the favor. Meet me at your family's wooden cabin." He said quickly.

"Wait. You're in Chicago?" Ric slurred

"I'll give you 10 minutes. Bring your Van Helsing costumes and toys." He added, ignored the question.

"What? Damon, What are you …"

"10 minutes." He spoke shortly before hanging up.

He turned around to look at her, bit back his chuckle when he saw she was desperately trying to wipe away the tears with her sleeves.

"Who is Alaric?" She asked.

"Still sober enough for curiosity, aren't we?" He smirked.

"Is he a vampire?" She ignored her irritation towards his attitude.

"No. But he's someone to get things done in situation like this." He answered while taking a U-turn and heading for his meeting point with Ric.

"You trust him?" She was genuinely surprised at that and also feeling a little hopeful seeing him pulling the car back and heading back to the city.

"No." He snorted. "I saved his life once, and the guy is a man of nobility, dignity or whatever it is that a few of your human are so keen on keeping. I used him to get my stuff done because he knows I'll destroy his cute little family if he fails me. So no I don't trust him but he'll get my stuff done for now."

"And what is it that you need him to do for you?" She frowned, not wanting to discuss about the death threat part.

"Babysitting you." He said, his voice was already back to the normal icy and collected tone, his face unreadable as usual.

"Where are you going? Are you leaving?" She felt panic creeping up inside.

"Do you know what Bree's death means? It means the bitch knows where we've been. And she's sending a message. I want you somewhere she can't see you, or even if she does she couldn't get her claws on you." His eyes narrowed. "While I take care of her."

Elena shut her mouth. He had that looked on his face again. That look before he ripped at the throats of the men in the alleys she'd seen before. That look after they got out of Bree's place. That look in his blue eyes that make them even colder and more murderous than human.

"Can you stay still on that butt for a few minutes while I'm on this?" He raised a brow when he stopped his car.

"I'm not gonna run. I don't even know where I am right now. And I need you to drive me back to Jeremy." She sighed.

"You've said that more than enough." He frowned, throwing her one warning glare before getting out on his own side, closing it and fixing his eyes on a cream mini van approaching.

Elena looked over her shoulder to see a man with sandy blond hair, tall and scruffy getting out with a heavy bag weighing on his shoulder. She realized that she couldn't hear what they were saying with each other because all of the doors and windows in the car were closed tightly. Curiosity won over, she reached over, held her breath as she rolled down the window on his side just a tiny bit so the sound could get in. She sat back straight in her seat, looking straight ahead while keeping her ears up like a sneaky cat.

"How's Jenna and the kids doing?" Damon asked as the guy walked up to him. She could tell the annoying smirk was on his face.

"Cut the crap. What do you want?" Ric murmured.

"Come on, no hugs for your old friend?" Damon chuckled.

"You don't have any friends. What do you want from me Damon?" Ric threw the bag down his feet and stood straight up.

"A small after school duty, Mr. Saltzman. I want you to run this little detention class. And that is your bad student." He nodded his head towards her.

Elena tried her best to look nonchalant and innocent as she pretended to be busy with the cd stack in Damon's car.

"Who is that?" Ric frowned, trying to have a better look through the windows. "And why do I need my weapons?"

"If she misses a hair on your watch, I'll slaughter your historic ass." Damon said light as air.

"Is this your way of asking people a favor?" Ric asked, irritated.

"This is my way of making sure people do what I ask." Damon replied on cue.

"Fine." Ric finally said after a while of silence. "After this, we're even. Stay away from me and my family, alright?"

"You say it like you really mean it." Damon laughed wickedly before turned on his heels back to the car.

Elena jumped in her seat when he opened the door on her side.

"Had fun eavesdropping?" He raised his eyebrows at her before taking her elbow and pulling her out of the car.

"Elena, meet Mr. Saltzman." He guided her to Ric. "Now you two greet and meet."

He walked around the corner and looked around. If things only got worse and they sure would, he needed a boost. He glanced around until he spotted a couple of women walking down the street, eying them a little before he decided to take on the younger one. The fresher the blood the better it was for him. Damon waited until they took the corner that he silently stalked after them, followed the steady rhythms of their beating hearts.

* * *

><p>"So you're saying you've been with him for weeks now?" Ric asked, stunned.<p>

Elena had told him briefly about what was going on. She left out most of it, just told him about the death of the witch and someone chasing her.

"Um yeah, about that long." Elena nodded. This guy seemed genuinely nice, even trust-worthy.

"You're human, right?" Alaric looked up and down at her. "Yeah you definitely are. So this is even weirder."

"Why ?"

"Damon doesn't keep company, not to say a human girl ... I mean woman." Ric blushed slightly. "Anyway…"

"It's not what you think." Elena sighed. He only kept her because she looked like someone in his past who now happened to want her dead and because he had nothing better to do.

"Yeah I don't want to know any more either." Ric nodded.

"You're gonna do what he says and keeps me here, aren't you?" She asked, looking him square in the eyes.

"When it comes to life or death, kill or be killed kind of matter, if anyone knows what to do it'll be Damon." Ric shrugged.

"Is that a compliment I hear?" Damon smirked, showed up out of nowhere behind Ric.

"Jesus!" Ric yelped, turning around on reflex. "Don't do that!"

"So are we all good?" Damon clasped his hands together.

"I'm not staying here. What if you trick me and never come back?" Elena crossed her arms.

"I won't since I still have a lot of things to do with you." He retorted.

"Ok. I'm gonna go… going to go inside." Ric looked back and forth between the two of them before picking up his bag and headed to the cabin.

"No, park your car and get in mine." Damon told him before turning to Elena. "I'm not making you to stay here."

"What?" Elena was caught by surprise by his statement.

"Well, leaving you here a few miles from Katherine with another human doesn't really sound appealing to me."

"So why did you call Ric?"

"Katherine's here means my brother's here. Normally I don't really find the difference if the bitch is by herself or not. But normally I'm not occupied with concern for the safety of a human being." He reached out and tucked a tray lock of hair behind her ears before smoothing the back of his hand down her cheek. "Ric is back up."

"So we're …"

"So we're going to get your precious brother and get your asses the hell out of Chicago. In and out. Like that." He dropped his hand to snap his fingers in front of her, rolling his eyes. He was now not only being concerned with a human being, he was trying to make life for two. This was too much for him. And just the thought of it really irritated him on some level.

"Thank you." She blinked, comprehended and took his hand, squeezing it a little as another non-verbal appreciation.

"That's your thank you?" He smirked, stepping forward, backing her to his car while keeping her hand in his. "Can't say I'm feeling the sincerity."

She shuddered at the sudden close distance between them. He leaned in closer and she couldn't help but drop her eyes on his lips. He smirked, pushing a little bit more so his lips barely distant from her by thin air, if either of them as much as breath, their lips would touch. Elena took a breath before closing her eyes and allowed the contact. She had meant for it to be a brief brushing over the lips, an innocent peck maybe but of course he wouldn't waste a chance. His hands snaked around her waist and kept her in place, his lips moved invitingly against her. He had meant for this to be as whatever he could take in return for the embarrassing hero act he was pulling. He had meant for this to be playful and purely for his advantage. But when her lips touched his, most of the thoughts in his head got knocked out and left place for only wanting and lust. It was not those violent kisses he forced on her like before. There was time to taste, to explore, to tease, to want more. He sucked on her lower lip, suddenly his only concern was what would be the closest sturdy surface he could lay her on and open for him. Elena was burning, her heart raced frantically in her chest, her hands shakily tugged at the lapel of his leather jacket, her hips weakly pressed into him for support. She shivered in his arms when he traced his wet tongue between her lips, asking for entrance. She whimpered, weakly opened her mouth.

"Er..hemm."

Elena jumped, broke the contact when she heard Ric's politely but awkwardly clearing his throat on the other side of the car. She covered her lips with both of her hands, so sure that any minutes she would burst into flames. Her heart beat faster. She could still taste him on her lips, feel the texture of his soft lips and wet tongue.

"So um are we still going to wherever that is?" Ric asked, obviously going and failing for the act of pretending nothing had happened.

"Thanks for the reminder, Ric." Damon looked as sour as his voice.

"Whatever." Ric murmured before hoping in the back seat and slammed the door.

"Bummer." He looked down at the still flustered Elena and ran his thumb over her chin, brushing ghostly over her swollen lips.

Her breath caught in her throat, she swallowed dryly, fully aware of Ric being in the car behind her and that she should walk away from him. Yet she stood still and locked her eyes with his sparkling blue.

"Should we still go get your brother or should we go get a bed?" He smirked.

Her brown eyes widened in shock and embarrassment. She swatted his hands away before stomping to get into her seat.

He chuckled, pleased to get the reaction he wanted from her. He was so glad he decided to take a drink before, with her hot blood pumping fast through her veins like that in the small confined space of his car, he would lose it, regardless of the hard-on he was bearing.

He hopped in the car and sensed the awkward tension almost visibly inside. He smirked, whistling a cheery tune as he pulled his car away, heading back to the damned place, wishing to get this damned rescue thing done and over with.

* * *

><p>It was easy, way too easy. Damon thought as he looked into his rear mirror. Anna, Jeremy and Alaric reluctantly squeezed together on his back seat. Anna looked even dead-er considering she was as dead as a vampire. Jeremy had a blank look on his face, as if not acknowledging the world. Damon rolled his eyes when Anna stole another glance from Jeremy only to look away when he didn't return and wiped her tears away. Alaric looked nervous and tensed, kept glaring at Damon and mumbling words under his breath. Elena looked a little more relaxed, occasionally put on an angry face whenever she caught his eyes. They got to Anna's apartment, in and out like he said, without any ambush, attacks, human, vampire or anything.<p>

But he had a feeling it was just silence before the storm. And it gave him an uneasy feeling.

"So I guess I still own you then. Since there was nothing for me to do." Ric said, stretching once he got outside of Damon's crowded car.

"Hang in there, hasty pants." Damon stopped him from going for his own car.

"So what do we do now?" Jeremy asked, putting an arm over Elena's shoulder. The kid got his memories back and clearly was not very lovey dovey with Anna at the moment.

Damon rolled his eyes at the sight of Anna's broken expression, on the verse of tearing up. Relationship and this kind of lover spat made him depressed and annoyed at the same time.

"Pick a city, state. And head into the sunset." Damon smiled sweetly at him.

"Now? Nah man, I'm tired. Can't we just stay here?" Jeremy jerked his head over at Ric's wooden cabin.

"No, man, we can't." Damon frowned, getting more annoyed by minutes.

"I'm really tired and I won't last another minute of car drive." Jeremy threw up his hands and looked over at Elena with a sulking look on his face.

"I think we should stay here for tonight. It's always better to sleep on it right?" Elena patted her brother's back.

"Do you think you need to bath him and read him a bedtime story too?" Damon mocked.

"Look." Ric stepped in, already sensing Damon's patience running out. "If you need to get them as far and as soon as possible, might as well use plane. So stay here for a few days won't hurt."

"A few days?" Damon laughed loudly. "Because I'm having a conversation with you all right now mean I'm starting to consider your wishes. We're leaving."

He looked pointedly at Elena. Anna just swayed there, pale like a ghost. Jeremy hadn't even as much glanced at her, so surely she would happily jump through a hoop to make the kid lighten up.

"It's already late, isn't it safer if we're inside a shelter?" She huffed.

"Shelter? This is more like a fortress." Ric laughed. He was teacher by day, vampire hunter by night for a while before he got married after all.

"Whatever, man. I'm going in." Jeremy dropped his words before walking to the cabin, dragging his sister along with him.

Damon sped up but got blocked by Anna before he could reach the kid.

"You're being ridiculous. Two vampires and a … vampire hunter here." Anna glanced swiftly at Alaric. "If we can't keep those two kids safe, might as well kill them ourselves."

"He just doesn't want to cooperate." Ric rolled his eyes before marching up to the cabin as well. "Hurry up and let me invite you two in, before I come to my senses."

* * *

><p>So here, Damon Salvatore, was sitting in the kitchen of Ric's cabin with every windows open. The place was stinking up with vervain stuffed everywhere possible. At least, Ric stocked up a full cabinet of fine whiskey and bourbon, Damon down the content on his first bottle, letting the alcohol warming his inside briefly. He rolled his eyes, listening to the movements in the house. Ric was on his phone with Jenna, apologizing for not coming home, swearing on his mother's name that he was not out at a bar of any sort. Upstairs, Anna was biting her own apologies to Jeremy who didn't respond with even a single word and so Anna's begging words turned into sobbing. He rolled his eyes even harder. This was sickening to him. And for the sake of hell and heaven, he had no idea why the hell he was there.<p>

Not really, he had an idea of why he was there. As for that moment, that idea was taking a shower in the bathroom upstairs. He focused on the sound of water splashing, letting his mind making up delicious visions of a naked Elena in a hot and steamy shower.

He shook the image away. Last time he wanted the girl shared her face, it didn't end well. But a little fun wouldn't hurt. He smirked, grabbing another bottle and headed upstairs when he heard her stepping out of the bathroom.

He caught the moment she stepped into the bedroom with only a tower wrapped around her slender frame, still dripping water, her wet hair matted against her shoulder. She took another towel and started drying her hair, bending a little forward, giving him an even better view of her rear.

"You look better, but still a few more pounds wouldn't hurt." He purred.

She yelped and turned around, reflexively clutching the towel to her body.

"Damon!" She scolded.

Her heart ran with adrenaline, her cheeks were burning. She was practically naked in front of him and she crushed her thighs together, stopping the throbbing between her legs.

He sensed her body's reaction to his presence clearer and better than the taste of alcohol on his own tongue. A heat coursed through his body, down south and his pants became too uncomfortable all of a sudden. The same thought came to his mind like when he kissed her earlier. But this time he saw the answer. The bed would do.

"Let ... let me go get dressed." She stuttered and turned to get back to the bathroom.

He was in front of her in a blink. His eyes laid smoldering on every exposed part of skin on her body. She crushed her legs together tighter. He lowered his head and placed a kiss on her shoulder before opening his mouth and swirled his tongue on her skin, savoring the sweet taste of it. She let out a longing sigh, feeling chills running down her spine.

"Wha what are you doing?" She asked breathlessly. He had touched her before, hugged her, kissed her, shared her bed. But nothing like this. He was seducing her and she hopelessly fell for it.

It was a mistake to ask. Because he silenced her with his kiss. This time Ric wasn't nearby to save her from the invasion of his sinful tongue and she broke into millions pieces when he sensually slid his tongue in her mouth, teasing, mating with her own. He broke it when she needed air, but breathing was getting harder when he trailed his mouth down her throat and his hands snaked up the outside of her thighs.

"Damon." She wanted for it to sound like a warning but it came out like a breathy yearning.

She lost her balance and turned dizzy for a moment before she found herself laid down on the bed, underneath him. He removed her hands from her chest and pinned it above her head, placing kisses on the inside of her arms, nibbling on her tender flesh and getting weak surrendering whimpers from her. He stopped assaulting her with his mouth to look pointedly into her eyes as his hands went to cup her breasts through the damp tower still clad around her body. He gave them a squeeze and her mouth dropped open. He smirked, hooking his fingers into the fabric and slowly slid it down from her body. The towel left her but his eyes never did, it made her feel even hotter and heavier.

He let his eyes have a full look of her naked form laid out in front of him. Feeling self-conscious, she crossed her legs, shielding her most intimate part from him.

"Don't." He whispered, planting kissed on her lips while parting her legs with his hands.

When his kisses dropped to her breasts, his fingers brushed over her slit. And she shuddered, her body fell apart at the sensation he was giving to her. She grabbed hands full of the bed sheets, hanging onto it as he gentle thrust a finger into her entrance and stated stroking her. Her breath labored, her body shivered in lust. His mouth left her harden nipples and licked down her stomach, sucking at every part it touched until it came to meet with his hands. She cried out softly when his tongue flicked over her bundles of nerves.

"Damon." She called out, because she had nothing else on her mind but him.

The sound of his name rolled out from her in lust made him aching hard. He dipped his tongue into her as deep as he could before drawing it out, flicking over her flesh. She thrashed, squirmed, buckled under him. He stretched her, teased her, hitting her where she needed him most with both his hands and his tongue. She felt the heat forming hard in her and when he suck on her pink flesh, pulling it out with his lips only to dip back in with his wet tongue. She came. Waves after waves of pleasure washed through her as her head fell back, her eyes rolled and her limbs went numb. He watched her riding on her orgasm, licking the sweet juice of her on his lips, feeling the heat of her boiling blood penetrating his senses, he could see her swollen pink flesh contracting in front of him, seeing her veins popping with rushes of blood. He lost it, his face changed, his fangs protruded and a low growl escaped his throat.

She opened her eyes and surprise flashed through her brown orbs. Not because his vampire face but because he looked confused and almost apologetic in it. Two of the things she had never seen in him. Damon on the other hand took it as fear and retracting himself from her body. She sat up just in time to wrap her arms around his shoulders and she kissed him. Pressing her lips against his sharp fangs, shaking with her own anticipation and new-found confidence. He pulled way, looking at her in shock but his face shifted to normal. Hundreds of years at least granted him control.

"Shh, it's ok. Not like I haven't seen it before." She smiled, running her thumbs over his cheeks, smiling when it turned back to its normal shade of flushed pink.

"It's ok?" He smirked sarcastically but she was glad it didn't meet his eyes. The eyes that were bearing an emotion she also had never seen before, he looked like he was … vulnerable and scared.

She took a page from his book and replied him with another kiss. She pulled him back down to the bed, wrapping her arms and legs around him. Damon followed, his mind ran all over the place. Shouldn't she be disgusted and screamed for help like she had before when he turned? Wasn't he in here for a piece of entertainment and a bit of punishment for her daring to manipulate his actions with her puppy-eyes and pleading way?

Her hands impatiently went to his pants. She was too … busy to notice that he was still fully clothed. Giving up trying to undo his pants, she clumsily grabbed at his erection through his pants and stroked him. He tensed, grunted when her small hands caressed his length. He wanted to be inside of her that moment, then and there. He searched for her eyes and gulped. Warm, passionate and loving. And he wanted that. He wanted to be loved again.

He froze at the sickening déjà vu feeling at his own thoughts.

She gasped when he disappeared from her. It took her a moment to see him standing a few steps from the bed, running his hands over his face.

"I'm sorry." He looked everywhere but her before picking up the discarder towel and wrapped it around her body. "I should go. Need a drink."

"What's wrong? I don't understand. Did I …" She sat up, still heaving, sweating and hot for him.

He looked away. He couldn't walk away, literally. His need for her was still evident uncomfortably in his pants.

"No. Not you. Nothing."

She almost cried when she heard his voice. Cool, collected and emotion-free again.

"I think I'll go hunting. I'm a little bit hungry as you can tell." He winked, and his façade was back full on now.

"Dam.."

He was gone before she could call his name again.

She lied back down on the damp sheets. She felt like screaming or breaking something. He had always been like that. One minute he would show her some emotion, would be gentle, would be caring and the moment she returned his affection for even just one tenth of the measure, he would brush it off, putting up his walls again and he would look at her with ice cold eyes, talked to her with that faux tone. She couldn't scream or break, so she cried.

* * *

><p>She walked into the kitchen searching for water after soaking all her pillows with self-pitied tears. Damon had left the house. She didn't see him anywhere. And the place was turning quiet as the night was getting late. She felt restless and exhausted at the same time.<p>

"Couldn't sleep?"

She looked up and smiled when she saw her brother.

"Hey. You too? I thought you said you were tired."

"I did?" Jeremy looked at her puzzled

"Jer, are you ok?"

"I'm fine. Hey, do you want a hot cocoa?"

"Sure." She smiled. She was talking to her brother again and she felt better.

"Jer… You should talk to Anna." She finally said while watching him fussing over the counter.

"What to talk about?" He replied, sounded strangely detached.

"You know, the compulsion. I know you're mad at her and she has no right but…"

"Here, drink up." Jeremy turned around and gave her a mug.

"Oh thanks. Yeah, so I think you should…"

"Drink up." Jeremy ushered the mug into her hand. "It'll get cold."

"You're deflecting." She smiled, taking a sip and he looked a little bit more relaxed.

"I'm really glad we're here together, Jer." She reached out for a hug. Jeremy only patted half-heartedly on her back.

"You're probably tired. Me too. We should get some sleep. Who knows what's tomorrow throwing at us…." She sighed, putting the mug on the counter.

"Drink some more. You'll feel better." Jeremy put it back in her hand. "Actually you should finish it."

Elena frowned at her brother. Jeremy looked almost blank and strange. She took more sip of the hot cocoa while watching him staring blankly at some spot over her head. She wondered if this was some kind of side effects to compulsion. She must ask Damon about this. She blinked. Thinking about Damon wetted her eyes and she quickly wiped the evidence away. She started to feel drowsy, maybe the long day finally worn off on her. Maybe she would have got some sleep already if Damon hadn't … Where was he anyway? She felt incredibly tired now. Her limbs were getting heavy and her lids barely stayed up. Why wasn't Damon happy with her? She must have done something wrong. Maybe he would talk to her after he fed. Where was Damon anyway? She felt ridiculously light. Damon always complained about her weight. He always thought she was too light. He made her eat a lot. Because he had a perfect body and vampires might not have to worry about weight gain. She felt dizzy and dark now. Why was the kitchen getting darker? Did someone turn off the lights? Where was Damon anyway? ….

Elena fell off the stool. Jeremy caught her before she hit the floor and caused any sound. The last thing she saw was Jeremy's blank expression hovering abover her and everything went black. Where was Damon anyway?

* * *

><p>She woke up feeling unnaturally heavy and numb in her own body. She stretched only to flinch in pain. Someone had her hands tied up above her head. She fought to open her eyes. She was still very hazy and blurry.<p>

"Damon?" She called out when she saw a dark figure sitting on a chair at the end of the bed she was lying on.

Her head was aching and she was so thirsty. Why were her hands tied?

"You're awake? Sooner than I thought."

She heard a low and soft voice. She shook her head, finally got her eyes to open properly. Her hands were tied up to a bedhead. She took in the first two things her brain registered. Jeremy was slouching on one of the couches in the spacious room, looking very much like a hotel. What frightening was a big bite on her brother's throat, blood stained the front of his shirt as he draped over the hand of the couch.

"Jeremy? Jeremy!" She shouted. He looked too pale. No. She started to shake in fear.

The second presence in the room was a man. Instantly she knew he was not human. He was tall, muscular but lean. Spikey brown hair. She wasn't sure if his eyes were green or gray because they were hidden in the dark shadow of his thick brows. He looked dark, but possessing that unmistaken alluring aura.

"Who are you? Is Jeremy ok? Don't hurt him, please." She sobbed.

Where was Damon?

Her brains screamed.

"Hello Elena."

The guy stood up and sat down on the edge of the bed next to her.

"Please don't hurt us." She was shaking, tears blurred her vision.

"Shhh. Don't be afraid." He leaned down, peering into her eyes. She could see his pupils dilated.

She froze, trying her best to calm down. Damon had told her not to let other vampires know about her immune to compulsion. She tried her best to get her breath even and her tears stop falling.

"I'm not afraid." She repeated like a machine.

"Good girl." He patted her cheek affectionately.

"Who are you?" She asked, keeping her voice from shaking

"My bad. I'm Stefan, you might have heard my brother mentioned me." He smiled and she caught the glimpse of his fangs.

"No, Damon never …" She whispered

"He didn't?" Stefan's brows shot up in an expression of surprise. "I find that surprising, considering the fact that you are reeking of him."

With that, his features darkened and Elena failed to keep her body from masking her fear when she watched Stefan turned into a nightmare right in front of her.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Before you throw garlic and holy water at my head, let me get this out: I love Stefan but this is just suited for his character to be a little grotesque and twisted in this story. Don't blame him, don't blame me either. Blame Katherine. I'll tell you why later. <em>**

**_So I come back with this long ass chap as an apology for delaying updating this story. _**

**_I seriously considered dropping this story but some of you message me and leaving reviews telling me you want to read more of this one so I feel obliged to fulfil :) Because I love your support that much. _**

**_Oh also, Ric in here because I feel the need to have him in all of my fic now because I'll miss him when he's gone on the show. _**

**_Drop me a review on your opinions on this updates if you have time. _**

**_Love you. xoxo _**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Rated M - dark them, violent and sexual content**_

* * *

><p>Elena opened her eyes when the pain she was expecting didn't come. She gasped when she saw Stefan's face only an inch away from her, with his vampire features on.<p>

"I really want a taste." He chuckled, brushing a finger down the column of her throat. "But you really are stained with his scent." He scrunched his nose up in pure disgust.

She was panting, her skin was slick with cold sweat. Her whole body trembled underneath Stefan's large form.

"Why are you doing this?" She gritted through her teeth, feeling the unbearable rage towards this man. He had hurt Jeremy. "Are you doing this for Katherine?"

"Oh you know about Katherine?" He raised an amusing brow and sat back up.

She resumed breathing normally when he was no longer hovering.

"So you are doing this because of her." She continued. Keeping him to talk was her tactic for that moment. She needed to keep his attention away from her and Jeremy, away from wanting to drain every drop of blood off of them.

"You couldn't be more wrong." He sat back in his chair at the end of the bed. "This is purely for me and you."

"I don't understand." She spoke calmly, trying not to spit in his face as the rage roaring inside of her at the sight of Jeremy all bloody and limpy.

"Elena, have you ever wondered how you escaped that fire?" He smiled and spoke slowly but her heart stopped.

"What do you mean?" She murmured.

"I saved your life. You are mine since that moment. Have been and always will be." He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees, looking at her with a smirk.

"How do I know that you're telling the truth?" She swallowed.

"Because I am." He cocked his head aside with a half-smile on his face, which terribly reminded her of Damon. She bit back the tears. Thinking of him made her weak, all she wanted was for him to show up this moment and take her away from this madness.

"What do you want from me?" She spoke calmly.

"Anna wasn't the only one watching you." He stood up and walked towards the bar counter to make himself a drink. "I was having my observation on you, too."

"Why did you do that?" She asked calmly, trying to hide her shaking fear when she saw that he was only 2 steps away from Jeremy.

"Curiosity at its worst." Stefan shrugged. "And I've seen that except for your looks, you are nothing like Katherine."

She couldn't tell if it was a negative or positive comment based on his tone.

"Do you want me dead too?" She asked, eyeing him warily as he made his way back to the chair with a drink on his hand, passing by her unconscious brother like he was a piece of furniture.

"I want the exact opposite." He grinned and she caught the glimpse of a big fang behind his lips.

She didn't know what to say after that. They stared at each other in dead silence for a while until she spoke up.

"Untie me." She pulled the restrains on her wrist. "You didn't have to tie me up."

"Oh I did. Knowing you, you would have tried to fight or run." He smiled but stood up again and approached her. "And I don't want to accidentally hurt you."

She jumped off the bed and ran to Jeremy the moment the binding was off of her.

"Jer!" She patted him on the cheek but stopped when she saw the movements making the blood gushing out on the ragged wound on his neck. "Jeremy, please wake up!"

Jeremy frowned and whimpered but couldn't lift his eye open. The tears were coming up in her eyes again. She opted her ear to his chest and cringed when she heard the weak thumping of his heart.

"Please leave Jeremy out of this." She turned to face Stefan. "I will do whatever you need me to do."

"Oh sorry about that." Stefan gestured towards the wound on Jeremy's neck. "I wanted to have a bite but I didn't want to leave you here alone." He grinned again.

He wanted to feed, not needed to. She tightened her jaw in anger but she pleaded again, for Jeremy.

"Please." She looked straight into his eyes, a dark green almost turning into black.

"He'll be fine." Stefan shrugged again.

And that was the last straw to her. She grunted, lurch for the candle stick placed on the table next to Jeremy couch, snapped off the candles and aimed for Stefan.

"Caring and brave. Glad to see you haven't changed after the incident." He appeared behind her back and slapped the offensive object off of her hand easily.

"If you want to kill me, do it. Do it now!" She spat.

"I don't want to kill you, Elena." Stefan chuckled. "I want you to be my girl."

"Go to hell." She snorted. "There's no way I'm playing threesome with you and that bitch." She bit back.

He laughed, loud and heartily.

"That's not what I mean. But I'm glad you always speak your mind. And Katherine is not a sharer anyway." He stepped to stand in front of her and held her chin up to look at her face.

"Let Jeremy go." She spoke slowly, weighting her every word.

"If your brother hadn't been in this room, you would have run, maybe even jumped out of the window if you got the chance." He smiled and she felt the urge to physically hurt him again. "Am I right?"

She wondered if vampires could read mind. Damon had always been able to tell what was on her mind too, or was she just that easy to read? She felt the sharp stab in her chest at the thought of Damon. She had tried to be strong so well so far, she could not falter now.

"Where is Katherine?" She asked, trying to put her mind back on the game.

"Let me get this clear for you. You see, when Katherine was with Damon, she wanted me. And when she got with me, she wanted him. She doesn't love either of us. She became a vampire not to be with us forever as my brother had so naively believed. She only did it for the power of immortality." He traced a finger down her jawline. She yanked her head away from his touch. "But he can have her now. I have you."

"You're delusional if you think I will agree to..." She stepped back.

He smirked before sped up, appeared in front of her, threw and arm around her and pulled her flush against his body. She struggled in vain. She stared up and saw the satisfying smirk, she spit in his face and he slapped her. She stared back in shock, feeling the burning sting on her cheek when she heard his deep growl.

"Over time, you will learn to accept me. I can give you all the time you need." He breathed. "Although I admit that the fact that you being with my brother does upset me."

"She doesn't know you're here, does she?" She smirked, venom filled in her voice. "Do you know that only one of us can live? If you want me alive, she'll have to die."

"I know." His features softened as he let her go, seemingly to recover from his sudden outburst.

"But I thought you two love each other." She swallowed, this was more twisted than she could ever imagined. He was even more dangerous because he was too unstable.

"I loved the girl I thought she was. She was much more like you when she was human. A little bit more coquettish maybe." He grinned again and she felt nauseous. "But kind, loving, strong-willed and passionate. At least I thought she was."

"You're willing to let her die?" Elena was in shock and disgust.

"I find a loophole in that curse, Elena." He walked away and sat down next to Jeremy. She realized he did that because he knew she would paid full attention to his every move now and rid of any thoughts of fighting him back.

"And what is it?" She gritted.

"The curse will only end if the doppelganger is killed by the original person." He paused. "But you don't have to stay dead dead." He grinned that wicked grin again.

"What do you …" She spoke before the meaning of his words sank into her. "No." She backed away from him as the room allowed her to.

"That's right. You can die and come back as a vampire. Your soul died, the curse ends and you start a new life as a dead living." He stood up and slowly walked towards her.

"No!" She shook her head, backing further away from him.

"I wanted to wait for you to be more mature." He glanced down her skinny form. "But of course my brother had to inconveniently get into the picture." He shook his head in disapproval. "This might be our only chance, Elena."

"Get away from me!" She screamed and jumped over the bed to get to the other side of the room. She grabbed the chair and hurled it at him.

"I said I didn't want to hurt you." Stefan snapped and in a blink he pressed her against the wall, clasping his hand around her throat.

"No!" She struggled, horrified to feel her feet left the ground as he held her up. "I can't ... breath.." She choked.

He bit down on his wrist and pressed it into her open gaping mouth. She felt the salty thick liquid slid down her throat, feeling her inside gagging up, protesting against the offended intrusion of his blood but failed. The more she gagged the easier the blood slid down her throat.

"Do not provoke me. You should learn that I am not good at handling disrespectful behaviours." He let go of his clasp around her throat when he felt the blood had sunk in.

She fell to t slump on the floor, coughing and gagging in disgust. It was too late, his blood had poisoned her system.

"Now is the part that I don't fancy." He chuckled and sat down in front of her, holding her face in his hands.

"Please! Please don't!" She cried.

Damon had told her vampires could not kill themselves. She would not be able to kill herself if she became one. She had just found Jeremy, she had found the reason she could live for again. She didn't want to die.

"I do this for you, Elena." Stefan stroked her cheek with his thumbs.

"I don't want to be a vampire. I don't want to." She cried, terrified to see she couldn't move her head in his grip.

"It won't even hurt." He tightened his hands around her skull. She stiffened her neck, she knew what was coming.

What do people think about when they see death coming, she wondered. Elena saw her parents, saw the days when Jeremy and her were little kids, the summer days when her father took them to the lake house, she saw her family, she saw and smelled the buttery aroma of the cookies her mothers would make when she came home after school, she saw Jeremy in his room drawing, she saw their old house, … then she saw _him_. Blue eyes, jet-black hair, strong set of jaws and those kissable lips. She remembered those moments waking up in the middle of the nights and found his arms draped over her body. His voice, his smirk, the way the sunlight lightened the blue in his eyes. Fleetingly, she hoped somehow she would see those again, feel his hands on her again for the last time.

"Don't worry. I will take care of you from here." Stefan placed a kiss on her forehead before turning her head aside.

She closed her eyes, letting go of the struggle her body had vainly put up against this unnatural strength.

"Elena!"

She opened her eyes in time to see Stefan being thrown across the room. Damon crouched down in front of her, he looked paler than she had never seen him.

"Hey hey! Look at me!" He asked quickly, lacing an arm over her waist and hoisted her up. She looked over his shoulder to see Ric in the room, a bow-gun in his hands and a few darts had landed on Stefan's back.

"Damon." She murmured.

"You need to get out of here." He hurried. "Ric! Get the car ready!" He shouted back and Ric nodded, running out of the room after throwing Stefan who was grunting on the ground one last wary glare.

"Jeremy." She turned but didn't see her brother on the couch any more.

"Anna got him. Elena, you have to leave…"

He didn't get to finish it when Stefan lurched at his back. She was pushed away from him and landed on the glass table. It shattered under her weight and she fell right onto the broken pieces.

"It took you quite long to find us, brother." Stefan stood back as he watched Damon got himself out of the mess of the broken bar. "Getting old and rusty, aren't you?"

"And you're still a little sneaky bastard." Damon smiled back before hurling a wooden stick at him. Stefan dodged it and Damon took that chance to tackled him, pinning him down on the floor. He reached the wooden stick again and drove it through his stomach, pressing it until it pierced through his body and touched the rug beneath.

Stefan grunted, coughed up chunk of blood as Damon got off him, staring down at him lying and nailed to the floor.

"Stay away from Elena. Send that to Katherine, too." He kicked Stefan in the face and satisfied to see the blood gush out from his broken nose. Stefan's head lolled to aside as he passed out.

"Shit!" He cussed when he saw Elena lying in the middle of the broken glasses, small cuts all over her arms and face.

"Damon, there's something in my back. It hurts." She cried, lying on her side in a weird angle as the pain kept nagging in her body.

He leaned over and swallowed dryly when he saw a large piece of broken glass sticking out from her back.

"It's ok. I will get it out. Stay still ok?" He hushed, lifting her blood-soaked top up so he could see clearer.

She yelped and curled up when he touched the glass.

"No, I can't! No no! Don't touch it! Let it be in there!" She cried harder. She had never experienced such physical pain in her entire life. Her body felt like it was tearing in half. Every breath she took, it hurt, every small movement she made, it cut her deeper.

"Stay still, Elena." He took a deep breath and pulled the glass out in one go. He winced when he could see how big and long the glass was, which meant the wound was deep and big inside of her too.

The blood was flowing freely out of her cut, he pressed his hand on the open wound, trying to ignore her screech in pain. He noticed there were 2 more smaller pieces of glass on her side and thigh and several small splints on her arm. He quickly pulled the big pieces out, trying not to let the rich flow of her blood distracted him. When he made sure she was clear of all the severe glasses. He hoisted her head up in his arms.

"Elena, I need you to drink now." He bit his wrist and brought it up to her mouth. She needed to drink a lot of his blood for her wounds to heal fast enough before she died of blood lost.

"No. I won't! I don't want to be a vampire." She babbled, loosing focus, pushing his hand away.

"Please. You have to..." He panicked, pressing his wrist to her lips only to feel her close up her lips tighter and held her breath.

"No! You can't make me. I don't want to be like you." She shook her head, slurring, spitting out the blood at that smeared on her lips.

"Just a sip. It won't ..." He shushed

"NO! Don't make me drink it. Stop!" She twisted and struggled on him.

He heard the sickening sound of her blood dripping through his hands and dropped to the floor, pooling under her. Elena shook her head, her eyes started to look glassy and blank, but her nose scrunched up and she bit her lips so head it started bleeding as she picked up the strong distinct smell of blood. This was her body's defense, her last fight of wills.

He bit on his wrist against, sucking a big gulp of blood into his mouth. He bent down and place his lips on her, prying her lips open like he had done before. She jerked before she started to relax and finally opened her mouth. He gratefully covered her mouth with his, letting the blood running into her. He repeated it a few more times. When his wrist couldn't heal fast enough between his constantly biting, he felt the wounds closed fully on her back. He scooped her up when he heard the whimper from Stefan's throat, and ran out of that room on full speed with her passing out in his arms.

* * *

><p>Elena frowned when she heard the sloshing sound of water around her. Was she on a ship? She shook her head, blinking and closing her eyes again as the bright light hurt her sleepy eyes.<p>

"It's ok. You're safe." The familiar voice encouraged her and she tried her best to open her eyes and see him.

"Damon." She sat up and winced. She felt like she had been ran over by a truck, every muscle ached, every joints hurt.

"Your cuts are still healing inside. It would take a little time." He held her back, stopped her from moving further more. "Drink this." He handed her a glass of water which she gratefully took. Her throat was burning.

She took in the surroundings. They were in the bathroom of his apartment again. She was in the bathtub, under the soothing warm water while he knelt next to the tub, with a cloth in his hands, clearly had been washing her. The water was a plain pink and there were more blood on his cloth. She realized she was having a lot of dry blood covered her bare skin, face, even on her lips. The smell of blood was suffocating in the steamy room. She remembered the night and started to feel nauseous when she remembered being forced fed Stefan's blood. She doubled over the edge of the sink and gagged, spitting out nothing but her body fluid and water. He sat patiently, patting her back and brushing her hair off of her face.

"How can you stay in here?" She spat out the nasty taste on her tongue and asked.

"It's called self-controlled. Not all of us go apeshit whenever we smell blood." He chuckled.

She looked at him, wondered how he did it, how it was for a vampire to be in a room stinking with human blood and be this calm and collected.

"Wait. Did I die?" She choked in horror.

"No. You're not becoming a vampire." He spoke quickly. "You're fine."

"Where's Jeremy?" She wiped her mouth and winced when she looked at the mess she made on the floor.

"Anna is with him. They are safe. He lost a lot of blood and still under compulsion but he should be fine with enough resting. Physically." He answered her sufficiently, standing up to grab the shower tap and sprayed off her vomiting.

"Is everyone ok? Did anyone get hurt? Can I see Jeremy now? I remembered seeing Alaric…" She ranted.

"Yes. No. And not yet." He sighed, sitting down next to the tub again.

Her eyes widened when she saw the blood stain all over his shirt, drying on his skin. She reached out and picked at the dry blood on his neck.

"And that is your blood." He shook his head, answering her before she could ask. "I'll take you to see your brother when you're fully healed." He dipped the cloth into the hot water and started rubbing off the dry blood on her nails and knuckles.

"How did you find us?" She slumped down into the water, letting it rise up to her chin as she watched him working on her hand.

"I'm a vampire." He answered as if it was obvious.

"What happened?" She asked, giving him her right hand when he finished her left.

"Stefan must have found Jeremy. It was understandable, consider Katherine tracked out Bree. I think we were followed from the start. He compelled Jeremy to drug you and take you to him." He spoke curtly and she peeked up through her wet lashes to see his face cold and harsh. He wasn't very happy. "I came back to the cabin quite late to find out that you were missing."

She lowered her head and focused her eyes on the large ring on his finger. The cabin was the reminder of what happened between them before she was taken away.

"Turn around." He ordered and she did as she was told. She pulled her knees up and clutched it to her chest.

"Did you kill him?" She spoke to the wall as she felt him rubbing the soft cloth up and down her back.

"No." He answered after a beat. "Is this hurt?" He poked a finger into a spot on her back. She shook her head. "Here?" He moved to another spot and she shook her head again. "And this one?" He pushed a little harder to a spot on her left side, near her rib and she hissed. "Yeah it was a big cut. We'll keep track on that one." He rubbed circles around the spot that made her winced with his palms and she felt the tingling sensation as his hands touch her skin.

She didn't know what to say. Everything was so surreal to her that moment. She was taken away, seeing her brother nearly die, nearly die herself and now here she was, in the calm and brightly lit bathroom, having a backrub from Damon.

"Get up." He tossed the cloth aside and stood up.

She turned around with her arms still around her knees, her chin under the water and looked up at him.

"Do I need to carry you out?" He smirked and she was glad to see his frown and the harshness in his expression softened a little.

"I'm naked." She felt her cheeks blushing.

"So I've noticed." He smirked again, this time his blue eyes softened a little as he looked down at her.

"Can you get me a towel?" She blushed harder, still slouching under the water.

"I'm not done with you yet." He chuckled, amused. "Come on, stand up and get in the shower. We need to wash your hair."

She bit her lips, picking at the skin on her finger. Damon huffed before turning around and walked to the door. She thought he was leaving but he flicked off the bright light and turned on the small yellow light above the mirror instead. The room dimmed down and offered more shadow.

"Elena?" He walked back to her and raised a brow.

"Fine." She pouted and stood up, stepped out of the bathtub and wobbly but quickly walked into the shower.

"You have to make everything a challenge for me, don't you?" He chuckled and followed her.

She panicked to see his shirt had gone and he was cladded in only his jeans. She waited but he just stepped into the shower and turned on the water with his jeans on.

"I can do this. You don't have to.." She stammered, reaching for the shampoo.

"Can you do what I ask for once?" He took it off of her hand and scolded.

She relaxed under the hot spray of water and felt him gently running his finger through her scalp.

"I thought I really was gonna die tonight." She murmured after a while of comfortable silence. The shadowy room made her felt more at ease, so as his soothing fingers.

"I shouldn't have left." He said softly. And she felt the tears finally made their presence.

"You should. Everyone need to stay away from me. Jeremy wouldn't get hurt if I didn't show up. My parents wouldn't have died…" She shook her head, her voice broke in tears.

"Don't do this." He sighed, turning her around to face him. "None of it was your fault." He ran the water down her hair, brushing it off of her face. She felt incredibly soothing and calm with him pampering her, showering her without any sexual intentions.

"But it is." She broke out into tears again.

Damon turned off the water, annoyed how helpless he felt, how clueless he was as in making her to feel better. She was almost died tonight and she was blaming herself. She was 17 for God sake, how she had not gone mental was already a blessing considered all she had been put through.

"No, it is not." He sighed, pulled her forward and took her in his arms. "What can I do to make you feel better?" He pressed his cheek against her temple, seizing her tiny waist in his arms.

"Don't die." She uttered after a while thinking. "And stay." She brought her arms around him.

"Ok." He smiled into her hair, feeling her breasts pressed up against him and her arms secured around his torso. He was going on a dead road if he continued to let himself crossing the lines with her like this. But he couldn't help it.

He toweled her off and dried her hair then tucked her into bed. He did it all with absolute gentleness.

"Where are you going?" She sat up when he walked away after pulling the blanket over her.

"Shower." He arched a brow and opened his arms for her to see him still in his wet jeans and dirty with dry blood and dirt.

She sunk back into the pillow and pulled the cover up to her nose. He smirked and walked away. He wondered if any other captors acted the way he did with his captive. She asked where he was going like he needed her permission to make an absence, yet he found himself amused at it.

Elena lied in bed, staring at the already familiar ceiling of his bedroom and listening to him hustling around in the bathroom. She ran through the events of the night in her head. What Stefan had said, what it meant. Her head ached, she could feel a throbbing vein on her forehead. She also had a funny half numbing, half soring feeling on all over her back. But she shut it all down when she heard Damon walked out of the bathroom. She pulled the cover up to her eyes, closing them shut as she curled up on her side before she heard his footsteps in the room. Damon quickly changed into his pj bottom and slid into his side of the bed.

"Good night, Elena." He spoke to her back. She didn't respond. Her whole body was exhausted and she didn't know how to face him in private moments like this after what had happened between them.

He looked over at her curling up like a fur ball under the thick blanket, her heartbeats were slow and steady. He peeled blanket off her body and lifted her top. He smirked when he heard her heartbeats accelerated like a rocket despite her staying perfectly still and relaxed but he decided to play along with her. He inspected closely her bare back, searching for any visible wounds or cuts that he might have missed. He sighed in relief when all he saw was her smooth bare skin. He was about to put her top back down when the drumming of her heart pounded in his ears fastened. He grinned and leaned in, placed a smooch between her shoulder blades. He frowned when her heart did skip and stopped for on beat before returning to a violent pounding like a racing horse on steroids. He chuckled, placed her top and blanket back in place and lied back down on his pillow. He knew he should stop getting closer to her, exploring these new things he felt towards her, but the way she reacted to his presence, his actions, his touches were addicting, thrilling and too fascinating to stop.

He brushed that aside and a sickening disgust slid up his throat when he thought about Stefan and Katherine. He recalled how he barged through that door and saw Stefan about to snap Elena's neck, with his brother's blood trailing down from the corner of her mouth. Stefan was going to turn her into a vampire and it had scared the craps out of her. Damon needed to figured out why. And Katherine hadn't made any move, it wasn't like her. Or it was totally like her to step back and watch others killing each other in her favor.

He didn't get to think more when Elena gurgled sleepily and turned to face him. Her face was hid under the blanket, she stayed still but he could still hear the concerto of her unsteady heartbeats. When would this girl know that he could tell when she was fake sleeping? Suddenly she flung an arm out and flopped it over his stomach. Her heart raced up and he could even feel the heat radiating from her under the blanket. He chuckled, turning off the lamp on his bedside table and lifted her blanket up. He slid in and bathed in the cacoon of her body heat and scent, he wrapped an arm under her shoulder and another over her waist. Elena rested her head on his chest, feeling his fresh scent of body wash filling her nostrils and she tried to suppress the sigh of content. She tried and despite how tired she felt, she couldn't sleep. She was aching for this, the comfort of his arms to lure her to sleep. And he was in arm reach, just right behind her on the same bed, it was tempting and she wasn't strong enough tonight to fight these temptation. She knew he would hug her back, or so she had hoped.

"Now sleep, drama queen." He chuckled, squeezing her waist a little and pressed his lips in her forehead.

She cracked her eyes a tiny bit and peeked through her lashes to see him rolling his eyes and a half smile on his face. What? She was faking a perfect sleep. He couldn't have known. But she brushed it off, she was feeling utterly comfortable and her brain started demanding to shut off. She tightened the arm over his body and pressed her cheek to his skin, starting to doze off peacefully.

* * *

><p><em>skinny love (n) when two people love each other but too shy to admit it but they still show it. <em>

**_sometimes that's how I feel about Delena :)_**

**_How is everyone coping with this hiatus? Not very well for me, to be honest. I missed Damon so much it hurts T_T _**

**_You know what keep me writing this story despite my serious blockage? it's your reviews, support and encouragement. thank you so very very much. _**

**_hope you enjoyed this chapter :) _**


	7. Chapter 7

Elena woke up to an empty bed. She took a walk through the house but didn't see any sign of Damon. She went through her morning routine, put on clothes and after a while sitting in the bedroom, impatiently started pacing the living room. She wanted to see Jeremy badly.

She stared at the front door, contemplating. Damon had told her not to leave the apartment without his consent. But Anna's place was only a few blocks away, if she ran fast she might be able to get there and back maybe before he came back? But she wasn't sure she would be able to leave once she saw Jeremy. She paced again, fighting the silent invitation the door was giving out.

"Oh screw this." She huffed and went for the doorknob, twisted it and opened the door.

"What do you think you're doing?" His large hand placed on the door and pushed it back in its frame before she could walk out.

"Damon! I didn't see…. I thought you're not home…" She stammered, turning around and leaning her back against the closed door. He was standing there, inches away from her, in all black as usual, messy hair and glistening blue eyes, staring down at here, with a hand placed next to her head on the door.

"Answer my question." He repeated, soft voice but she caught perfectly clear the displeased and simmering angry tone in it.

"I … I thought I would … I want to see Jeremy." She tried to keep herself back in check.

"Did I ever say you can leave this apartment without me knowing?" He asked again, this time didn't bother to hide the irritation in his voice.

"No." She swallowed. This wasn't the Damon she saw last night, wasn't the guy that was so caring and gentle, washing her off blood and dirt, cuddle her to sleep. This was the intimidating, murderous vampire that was her captor.

"Do you know that there are vampires out there that want you dead, Elena?" He closed the distance, maybe just for the sake of scaring her out even more.

"No. I mean I do." She pressed back harder against the hard door. "I'm sorry. That won't happen again."

"How is your back?" He suddenly asked, his hand moved and pulled the stranded hair out of the corner of her mouth.

"Ok. It feels normal." She blinked, confused, like she had always been with his constant changing behaviors. One minute he was angry, the next he was running his finger chastely through her hair, asking about her back.

"I hate being lied to and if you think you can fool me, go behind my back, you can't." He moved his hand out of her hair and Elena resumed breathing again. "Do you want me to be angry with you?"

"No." She murmured, lowering her head like a scolded child.

"Good." He placed a finger under her chin and brought her face up to him again. "Because I don't want to be angry with you either."

She held her breath again, this thumb softly ran over the outline of her bottom lip. Her heart raced up. His blue eyes left hers when he dropped his gaze on her heaving chest before boring back to her brown ones only to see she was staring at his lips. She was anticipating a kiss.

"You can't see your brother now. Not yet." He pulled away all of a sudden and she felt like someone pulled out the rug under her. "Come in here, please."

He walked back to the room at the end of the hallway that she had seen always closed. She took a deep breath and followed. She had never wanted to be able to read mind as bad as she wanted it now. If only she could tell what was going on in his head…

"Why not? Is he ok?" She asked as she followed him into the room. It appeared to be some kind of study with more shelves of book. A giant paper desk placed in front of a doubled frame of glass windows.

"Come in. Are you hungry?" He walked around the desk, glancing back at her.

"What?" She frowned. That was not what she had expected him to say.

"I'd ordered something in for brunch. Should be here soon. Sit." He pointed to the chair across the desk.

"What is going on? Why are you dodging my questions about Jeremy?" She huffed but sat down as he asked.

"Dodging your questions?" He arched a brow, twisted the corner of his mouth in an amused smirk. "I will answer any questions you have after you give answers to mine first."

"Ok." She nodded after a while thinking. "And then we go to see Jeremy?" She added.

"You're persistent, aren't you?" He chuckled.

"I just want to see if he is ok. It was a big bite on his neck and last time I saw him he was unconscious and …" She spluttered, feeling the stinging tears in the back of her mind as she recalled the sight of Jeremy last night.

"Anna called and said he had woken up. She healed all of his wounds and he is as fine as you are." He sighed, softening his voice a little. "As I said, you will see your brother again, but not now."

"I understand. What do you want to know?" She took another deep breath and sat up straight.

"Tell me what happened last night when you were in that room." He spoke and ice slipped back in his voice, his eyes on her but totally detached and impassive. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. There was a whole space between them with the huge desk in the middle. It was like he was putting a distance between them on purpose, physically and mentally.

She started speaking, telling him what Stefan had told her, interrupted a few times with her own frightened shivers at the memories. She didn't know what was worse. Katherine wanted her dead or Stefan wanted her to be a dead living. She finished the story and sunk back in her chair, wrapping her arms around herself. Damon sat still with a frown on his face. He almost broke the handle of his own chair a few times when Elena told him Stefan slapped her, choked her and forced his blood down her throat. What bugged him even more, was that he knew it was his fault. It was his fault that she was left unprotected.

Elena looked up and glanced at his face. He had that look in his eyes again. That murderous and ice-cold look, like when he attacked the guy in the alley. She shuddered, tightened the hold of her arms around herself. She looked up again and gaped when she didn't see him in the chair any more.

"Err Damon?" She stood up and looked around, confused.

"It's getting cold. You should dress warmer." He appeared out of nowhere, with one of her knitted cardigans in his hand. He held it out and waited.

"Um. Thanks." She blushed, turning around to put her arms in the sleeves as he stood there waiting. He pulled it on her shoulder, gathering her hair in his hands and pulled it out of the cardigan, letting it fall out on her back. She turned around and stared up at him but he didn't meet her eyes back. He smoothed down the collar of her top then ran the back of his hand quickly down her jawline.

"Food is here." Just as before, the tenderness in his eyes was gone as quick as it had come. "Come." He jerked his head towards the kitchen and walked out.

She breathed in, catching the faint scent of him still lingering in the air, not sure if her frantic heartbeats was because she was scared or excited.

* * *

><p>Again they sat with length of the dinning table between them. Elena munched lazily on her food, not having much an appetite with all the emotions she was dealing with. Most of all, she was in a foul mood because Damon kept being distant and cold. He spoiled her with attention and gentle caring the night before, she wasn't much eager to put up with this attitude any more.<p>

"Don't pick on your food." He tossed her a warning glare and finally broke the silence when she kept crushing the potatoes into small pieces on her plate without eating any.

She pouted, smashed the small pieces down into a grainy mess under her fork. He chuckled but didn't say anything else. Sometimes he forgot she was only a 17-year-old human girl.

"Have some more pancakes. And eggs." He pushed the plates towards her, biting back his smirk when he saw her almost growled and glared at the pile of pancakes like they were her born enemies.

"I don't want to." She murmured.

"It wasn't either a suggestion or an offer. Eat." He bit back, tapping impatiently on the plate. She didn't eat anything except for some bacons and a slice of bread. She looked too ashy and hollow, almost looking like how she was when he first saw her. He wanted to see that healthy glow of pink color on her cheeks again, he saw it once after the first few weeks and he intended for her to keep staying that healthy and lively.

"No thank you, I'm done." She rolled her eyes and pushed her chair back.

She stood up, only to bump into his stone-hard body when he appeared right next to her chair, blocking her way. Sometimes she forgot he was a freaking vampire with supernatural speed and strength.

"You can get pouty and cranky all you want, princess. But from now on it's your duty to have at least 2 full plates of food a meal, 3 meals a day and I might make you to start drinking milk before bed time if you keep this kind of behavior on the table." He cocked his head aside, glaring down at her.

"I'm not a baby." She fumed. How dare he spoke like she was a child that he was babysitting at a daycare.

"Then stop acting like one." He smirked at her pouting face and for the first time in the morning, his eyes softened and his whole posture relaxed completely.

"Look who's talking." She snorted.

"You didn't just say that." His brows shot up in surprise. He could tell she was pissed, and funny how he found all this extremely amusing.

"Yeah I did, actually." She whipped her head up and stared into his eyes. "If you can have all these obnoxious mood-swings, one second being all nice and kind and warm to me then the next irritatingly boss me around like I'm your pet then I can have an attitude if I want to, too!" She pointed a finger into his chest.

"Obnoxious mood swings?" He raised his brows again, pursing his lips in thinking.

"Yeah. And who the hell says stuff like Come, Sit, Eat? What's next? If Elena is being good we'll pat her on the head, give her a treat, if she disobeys we'll whip her until she does the trick?" She was slurring now. It was irrational to say these things. She knew she was still his captive, he was a vampire and she was human. He made it clear he had never seen human as anything more than food, it was understandable if he treated her like a pet, like a thing he owned. But it irritated her to the guts anyway.

"I never thought of either patting or … whipping you, up until now." He chuckled and then as if couldn't help himself he laughed, shaking his head slightly as his chest vibrated with his heartily laugh.

Her jaw dropped. Damon was laughing. Real laughter where his eyes squinted and his shoulder shook as he bent over and laughed, not like those sarcastic snorts or annoying smirks that he had always done. Suddenly he looked so young, and even more handsome, more human. She wondered for the first time how old he was. She found herself smiling along too, realizing how ridiculous what she had just said sounded. Embarrassed, she tried to look angry but failed and ended up half-giggling half-frowning while he kept on chuckling between his laughs.

"Do not laugh at me!" She blushed, shoved him back and walked around him to get away.

Of course, he wouldn't let her go that easy. He jumped around and blocked her again, she headed face first into his chest and stumbled back. Freaking vampire. She growled, annoyed.

"_Please_ come back to the table and have some more food." He held her back, putting his hand on her hip. "I know you're hungry. Don't starve yourself because of me." He circled his thumb on the side of her hip and she her stomach did a flip-flop.

"Stop this." She spoke and it came out breathless. He barely touched her and her body was already reacting too strongly, too overwhelmed.

"Stop what?" He asked but brought his other hand up and snuck around her waist. He clasped his hands together on the small of her back and held her close to him.

"You can't touch me or kiss me whenever you want like that." She repeated what she had said many nights ago. Back then it was because she hated him, now it was because she was not sure if she still hated him any more.

"I know." He answered, different than what he had said before.

She held her breath, froze in place and trapped in the intensity of his gaze. She could only held eye contact with him for so long before her eyes dropped down on his lips.

He smirked and before she knew what was going on, her head spun and she was seated squarely on her seat back at the table again. He knelt down next to her, placing the napkin on her lap, pulled her plate back in front of her and finally looked at her.

"But I'm dead serious about 2 plates a meal and 3 meals a day." He spoke with a hint of a smile.

"Why? Besides just to be obnoxious." She quipped.

"You are too thin, it's unhealthy. I want you to stay healthy." He brushed her hair away from her face. "Until you get back to a normal weight, you have to eat properly."

Why? Because he cared about her being as a person or because he was taking care of his human blood bag? She wondered but kept the thought to herself. She was not so eager to hear him repeat how she was simply a thing he did to past time or to satisfy his curiosity again.

"Fine." She sighed exasperatedly. "If that keeps you out of my hair…" She lowered her head and murmured under her breath.

"So, Elena, would you like some scrambled eggs?" He smirked, pulling the chair next to her out and sat down.

"Yes, please." She took the eggs and ate it. It was a little cool down but it was actually really good. Ok so maybe she was acting a little like a baby. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He smiled, pouring a glass of fruit juice for her.

It went on peacefully like that. He took small portion out of each plate and put it in hers and she finished everything she was given. That kept a smile on his face the entire time, which she didn't miss. So maybe she would give him this, and did as she was told for once just so she could see that pleasant smile on his stupid handsome face. She sullenly thought.

"When can I see Jeremy?" She managed to be quiet for the total of about 11 minutes he noted.

"Anna will call." He chuckled, sliced a fresh orange for himself.

"How old are you?" She looked at him eating his orange with curiosity.

"I was born in 1429." He laced his hands together and placed his chin on top, preparing to answer the list of question he knew she had coming.

"When is your birthday?" She asked again after a while thinking, probably taking a quick math to figure out his age.

"August 15th." He picked up another slice of orange.

"That's Leo." She blurted.

He raised his brow higher and she blushed furiously. He grinned but thankfully let it go and went back to eating his orange.

"Does food taste the same as when you were human?" She watched him popped the juicy orange into his mouth and chewed deliciously.

"Some do, others not quite." He smiled back at her.

"Like garlic?" She couldn't help it. She regretted asking the moment she saw that irritating smirk plastered on his lips.

"We can taste some food better because we get to pick up the complexity of their layered flavors, that normal human taste buds are not sensitive enough to pick up." He shrugged. "I never liked garlic, even as human." He thought it was funny how she kept going back to these stereotypes that she learnt from fictional books and movies about vampires. "But I've always loved orange."

She watched him licked off the juice on his lips, almost hypnotized. She should seriously need to stop being distracted by his lips.

"Um. Favorite color? Beside black." She asked after slightly shaking her head to clear her quite 'inappropriate' thoughts about his lips.

"Blue. Navy blue." He smiled, pleased to see she started clearing her plate.

"Are you Italian?"

"We originally came from Firenze. But I was born in this country."

The q-a session went on even after she had finished her food. It amused him how she came up with so trivial and random things to ask. He laughed a few times. When she asked if he had watched Finding Nemo or what would he prefer Doritos or Pringles.

"How old were you when you became a vampire?" She tentatively asked when she followed him back into his study.

"24." He answered quickly and she knew she had entered touchy subjects zone.

"How?" She swallowed, placing herself down on a couch.

He sighed but surprised her by clutching the heavy book he had taken from Anna, walked to her couch, lifted her foot up and sat down. He propped her feet on his lap and placed the book on the hand rest of the couch.

"We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." He sighed.

"We?" She frowned

"My brother." He looked over at her. "We were turned at the same time."

That wasn't exactly a clear answer but she didn't want to push him. Maybe, maybe someday he'd tell her the whole story. Bringing up Stefan brought her back to reality. She bit her lips and fell back in silence, watching him flipping through the pages of the book while resting a hand on her legs. She fidgeted with her fingers, picking on the skin around her nails but never shifted her legs, not wanting to disturb him. She glanced around the room but her eyes kept finding their way back to him.

"What is it?" He chuckled and asked without looking up from his book.

"What?" She stopped fidgeting.

"What is it that you want to ask me?" He turned his head slightly and stared at her, waiting.

"Can you tell me about Katherine?" She slowly asked, watching closely for his reaction.

"What do you want to know?" He closed the book and put it away.

"What happened between ... You know … Stefan and you and her.." She took a deep breath and asked.

"We passed by her town in 1864." He spoke quickly. "I found her, fancied her, chased after her, … had her. After time, she asked me to turn her. I did. Then she ran off with my brother into the sunset after the transition. I had no idea she was with Stefan while she was with me the whole time." He smirked at her. Elena almost winced at the bitterness of his smirk. "Scandal of the century."

"I'm sorry." She whispered, shocked.

"Don't be! Bad decisions make good stories they say." He laughed humorlessly, brushing it off by a cruel joke like he would always do. "But in my case, it just made a really really bad taste bitch."

"No. I'm sorry that you loved her and she did that to you, to your love, your trust." She sat up, placing her hands over his.

He stared at their overlapped hands and back to her face. That same face that had him blinded and head over heals a century ago, only a little bit younger, warmer, and purer.

"I say live and learn." He smiled sadly, bringing her hand to his lips and kissed the back of her hand. Her breaths shortened, her skin heated up and her heart raced. Her mind ran all over the place. The way he looked at her made her feel uneasy. The thought that she looked like the girl that crushed his heart and broke him in anyway a woman could to man scared and disgusted her. Live and learn. What possibly good could he learn from such a horrible thing?

"Damon, I …" She started and stopped because he threaded his fingers through her hair, held her at the back of her neck and sealed her mouth with a searing kiss. He tilted her head and deepened the kiss. She moaned into his mouth, clumsily holding onto his shoulder and climbed onto his lap. He shifted, placing her back down on the couch and got on top of her. She sighed and shivered when his kisses trailed down her neck, onto her exposed cleavage above the neckline of her top. She grabbed his hair and brought him back to her, this time initiated the kiss. She parted her legs and brought them up on either of his side, letting him pressed closer to her body. She was turning feverish. All of the bottled up tension, restrained attraction she felt towards him was running loose under his touches. She ran her hands up inside his shirt, roaming the muscles she found underneath.

He suddenly grabbed her wrists and gentle pulled them out. He got up quickly and pulled her to sit up.

"I'll go get myself a real bite now." He spoke calmly and collected. Like nothing had happened while she was panting, all flushed cheeks and tousled hair.

"What?" She asked, puzzled.

"This place is sealed with some magic. I'm the only vampire that could enter. I first thought of it as a privacy solution but now it happens to be handy." He turned to her, smoothing her hair down. "So as long as you stay inside, you're safe."

"That's not what I'm talking about…" She took hold of his hand.

"Can you please promise to keep yourself safe for about an hour? I'll be back as soon as I can." He smiled, softly pecked her lips, silenced her frustration.

She huffed, swatted his hands away, shook her head and got up from the couch, walking towards the bedroom. Damon rubbed his face and ran his hand though his hair, still feeling the way her fingers scratching through it. He stood up and walked to the front door, opened it and froze.

He stared at the replica of the girl he had just kissed, standing outside of his door, smiling up at him. Suddenly a century felt just like a day. This body, this face, this seductive charm that he had fell hopelessly for a century more ago still looked exactly the same.

"Katherine." He breathed.

"Damon. I was just about to knock." Katherine smiled, reaching out to touch him but frowned when the invisible barrier stopped her from crossing the threshold. She dropped her hand and swayed on her feet with a pout. "I have missed you."

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><p><strong><em><strong><em>Elena and Damon, two people worst at handling and expressing their feelings, aren't they?<em>**_**

**_2nd update in a week! This one solely dedicated for Delena. Next one we'll deal with the drama again ok? :)_**

**_Thank you for the reviews on last chapter. Please talk to me more :) _**


	8. Chapter 8

"What are you doing here?" He acted fast and determined, clasping his right hand around her slender neck and pinned her back against the wall on the other side of the hallway.

"Ow!" Katherine cringed when her head bounced off the hard wall. "You were so much more tender." She pouted, snaking her hands up his front.

"Answer me." He scowled.

"You know the answer." She huffed, resting her hands over his in front of her neck. "I'm here for_ my_ doppelganger."

"Then you'll have to leave empty-handed." He smirked. "Or missing some of your organs."

"Is that so?" She smirked back, sensually stroking the back of his hand. He tightened his clasp around her neck, silently re-emphasizing his words. "Are you really capable of hurting me?" She looked up at him, staring directly into his eyes and widened her own, a sad and fragile look donned on her beautiful features.

Damon blinked.

"Don't try and lie to yourself." She smiled sweetly, batted her lashes coquettishly at him. "You still love me. Always have and always will."

"You're always so sure of yourself, Katerina." His lips twitched but his eyes hard and cold.

"That I am." She snickered. "I'm always sure of your love for me." She paused a little, before darting her eyes back to his. "If you want to kill me, you already had a century and more to do it. But you haven't."

"Yet." He snorted.

"Come on." She laughed chillingly. "You checked on me over the time. You think I didn't notice? Why did you think I have so many sex with Stefan in the open? Did you enjoy the shows I put on just for you?"

Damon tightened his jaw, his eyes darkened.

"You kept that poor thing." She glanced at the open door of that apartment. "Because she looked like me, am I correct?"

"Did you know that dearest Stefan came after her?" He murmured back, pressing his other hand on her hips and pushed her back when she arched her hips into him. "Very politely asked Elena to take your place because, well, basically you're starting to bore him out of his mind, which is quite astonishing considering what big of a bore Stefan is."

"And he me." She pouted, swatting his hand off of her and circled her arms around his neck. "You are so much more fun."

"You chose him." He stood back, prying her arms off of him and pushed her shoulders back against the walls again. He needed to keep Katherine under control. Elena was only behind the protection of a few walls and a layer of magic away.

"It was a mistake." She pouted harder, putting back her upset maiden look. "I missed you."

"Why are you here?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "And spare me the bullshit."

"My, Damon, you've changed." She fended a gasp and offended look at his choice of words. "But I like this so much better. You're even sexier, hotter, more difficult … And you know how much I love a challenge."

"Spare-me-the-bullshit." He spoke, calmly and slowly, pressing on each and every word.

"Fine." Katherine pursed her lips. "I'm here to fulfill the promise I made to you when I asked you to turn me. I'm here to spend forever with you, again." She smiled up at him, wandering her hands back to around his neck, pulling him down to her.

"Right." He laughed humorlessly. "Because I look stupid enough to trust you twice?"

"Damon." She cupped his face and turned him back to her. "I was young and naïve. I fell for Stefan's sweet seduction. I'm trying to make it right again, can't you see?"

He stared impassively at her, trying to read through her mask, trying to search out for any traits of deception. Answering him was only those sweet doe-eyes, inviting plumb lips, small cutesy features on her young and beautiful radiant face. Her hair even looked the same and smelled the same like he last remembered.

"What about _your_ doppelganger? You know the curse." He inquired.

"If I'm with you, I know you'll keep me safe, at all cost." She pointed a finger onto his chest. "I only need to have you on my side…"

"Oh so I'm your security solution is what we're talking about?" He snorted.

"The moment I dropped a hint that I wanted you again, Stefan made a plan B." She traced her thumbs across the flush on his cheeks. "What we shared was purely lust and the thrill of doing the forbidden. You knew how much of a rebel I was." She smiled shyly, if she could she would have blushed too. "On the other hand, what you and me had, was real. You are my solution for everything."

"A century, Katherine. Why now?" He asked, neither rejecting nor encouraging her touches.

"Does it matter that I wasted a century with him if I will spend all to come with you?" She stood on her tip-toe and stopped a thread before him, their lips only thin air separated. "Kiss me."

He stared at her for one beat longer before his lips crashed down on hers. Katherine immediately wrapped around him like a vine, moaning delicious sound into the savage kiss. He was rough, aggressive and merciless. She took it all too eagerly and happily, bringing her legs around his waist. He pressed her against the wall again, this time trapping her with every bit and pieces of his body. His mouth moved to her ear, his tongue darted out, swirling on her flesh. She rolled her head aside, threading her fingers into his hair and pulled him closer. He licked her neck, sucking on the pulsing vein before vamping out and pierce through her flesh with his fangs. Katherine squeaked, then moaned and sagged against him when he started sucking while lapping his wet tongue around the open wounds.

"Take me inside, love… Take me now." She mewled lamely into his ear.

He pulled out after a few more gulps, deliberately letting his sharp teeth scratch on her skin and marked her with open flesh wounds. Katherine hissed, feeling the fresh pain on her neck. He watched as the wounds started to close and heal on her.

"No." He pried her legs off of his waist and stepped back. He looked detached, unaffected, as if nothing had happened.

"No? You know you want to." Katherine was panting, her pit of her stomach ached, her breasts turned sensitive and even her could feel her erected nipples poking against her flimsy top.

"Here's my end of the 'deal'." He made an air-quote, smirking at her. "A month. Stay away from Elena Gilbert for a month. Keep Stefan under your watch, too. After a month, you'll have my answer."

She eyed him with obvious interest. He didn't turn it down immediately, which could only mean that his answer would only be rather yes or maybe.

"2 weeks." She pouted, stepping up and snaking her arms around his waist. "I can't wait any longer to finish what you just started." She grounded her hips against him, pressing her pelvis into his.

"One month." He smirked.

"Fine." She puckered her lips, he wouldn't be surprised if she started stomping her feet and pulling on his sleeve. Katherine and her girlish childlike pleading, he had it all too much. "One month."

"If you made a move towards her, deal's off." He spoke firmly.

"I'm here now, baby, you don't need to play with that replica any more." She rolled her eyes.

"In that sense," He smirked, stalked slowly towards her. "you, Katherine, are also just an old protocol made a century before her."

She glared at him, offended written all over her face. He smirked and before she could see it coming, he thrust his hand into her stomach and made a cruel twist.

"What the hell!" She choked, gasping in pain.

"I'm giving you a demonstration of how easily it is for me to _deal_ with you if you as much as think about going back on the 'deal'." He spat every word out with venom. "Also how angry I am with you and what I am really _capable_ of." He reused every word she had spoken with dripping sarcasm and malice.

"You're still angry because after all that time you still can't hate me." She winced, feeling her inside protesting against his intruding hand. "Damon…" She whined, trying to push his hand out of her.

"Leave." He breathed in her face before withdrawing his hand.

She vanished the moment she was free from his attack.

He walked back in his apartment, closed the door behind him before crouching down and faced a curled up Elena against the wall next to the door's hinge.

"When would you stop eavesdropping on me?" He looked at her, his face unreadable.

Elena was shaking profusely. She didn't know if it was from anger, disgust or shame. Why did she have to torture herself by peeking at the whole scene? Why did she have to hear all that? Why did she have to see him heatedly kissing another woman. Not just another woman, a woman that looked like her. Katherine only looked fuller, with more sensual curves that if Elena had gained a few more pounds, she would too look like that. Then she had a sickening idea of why he always pushed her to eat more.

"Why? Why do you need to keep me around? Why don't you just hand me to her?" She looked up to meet his eyes and that was when she realized she was crying.

"Do you want to be killed by her that bad?" He snapped, his eyes darkened.

He had sensed Elena's appearance the moment she approached the partially open door. Not just because he could tell her heartbeats, her breathing, her scent better than those of his neighbors or the other sound of life around him. But also because he was all too used to her presence. Katherine wasn't that sensitive and he was all too happy to keep Katherine's attention away from Elena. Now he had to face the aftermath of leaving Elena watching the whole ordeal with Katherine.

"I can fend for myself. I'll die fighting than living as your piteous pet!" She gritted through her teeth.

"Fighting?" He laughed. "You won't even have the time to blink if you're within Katherine's hand reach."

"Not that it's any of your concern." She barked back. She hated him. She loathed this gorgeous looking creature in front of her. She regretted letting him touch her, kiss her, mess with her mind. She felt disgusted, grossed out with the fact that he was shoving his tongue down another girl's throat just 5 minutes after he placed his lips on hers.

"Everything you do is my concern." He tightened his jaw and she knew he was starting to get angry too. Good. Fuck him too. "I made that clear since the beginning."

"I'm going to my brother." She stood up. "And don't fucking tell me I can't."

"You heard the deal, you'll be safe for …"

"I don't give a crap about your deal with the devil." She snorted, wiping her face into her sleeves, walking away. "I don't care if someone is waiting for me with an axe around the corner. I'm going to see Jeremy."

"You need to calm down." He blocked her way again.

"Stop doing that!" She screamed. "Just because you can move with your freaking stupid vampire supernatural speed doesn't mean you have to do it all the freaking time!" She didn't lower her voice. It felt good to yell. "And don't tell me what I need to do."

"I might as well stop because you never really do what you're told." He snarled back. She had never acted like a captive of his, always defying, always fighting against his will. He felt lack of control, he felt unprepared because he could never expect what was to come from her. It was frustrating and intriguing to him all the same. Never in his life, had Damon valued and wished for his compulsion to work on a human this badly.

"You don't own me!" She shouted back, oh it felt good, it felt so good shouting in his face, having a verbal brawl with him was in a way releasing the frustration she was carrying. "If you think because you saved me from those bastards, you can drop me back where you find me now. I don't have to be grateful because you saved my life from that hell hole to bring me into another."

"No. You have to do what I say because that is what I _want."_ He stepped forward. "And don't raise your voice with me. A piteous pet, you say? Had I put you in restrains and locked you in a cage, chains and whips rather than speaking to bend you to my will, had I treated you like a pet, you wouldn't be standing here, yelling nonsense in my face like this."

She was rendered speechless after that. She stood upright, clenching her fists on her sides, her chest heaving as she glared daggers into his eyes. He paid back her furious glare with equal measure.

"You are a fireball, aren't you?" He sighed, and just as unexpected as ever, raised a hand and rubbed the pad of his thumb against her cheekbone.

"Don't touch me." She blinked at his touches, swatted his hand away, hated herself for almost giving into his hand. It was not her fault how her heart flutter and her stomach flip-flop every time he let her feel how soft and gentle his touches could be.

Damon stood back and let her walk pass him to get into the bathroom this time. He stared impassively at the closed door, listening to her sniffing her nose behind it, properly crying and silently cursing him some more in there.

For the last century he had had so many visions of how his reunion with Katherine would be. If he had been honest with himself, yes, of course he still had feelings for her. He loved the girl enough to want to spend forever with her and they never had a proper closure. Yet, now he wondered why during the yelling session he just had with Elena, his encounter with Katherine totally slipped off of his mind. And why now here he stood, the thought of how long Elena would be mad at him was nagging at him more than the 'deal' he had just made with Katherine.

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><p>Anna was surprised and slightly annoyed when Damon and Elena showed up at her door without warning. She was about to scowl when Elena gave her a tight polite smile to say hello before storming into the place, heading straight for her brother. Anna looked quizzically at Damon who had a frown on his face and irritated glare in his eyes, his whole posture screaming don't-you-dare-disturb-me. And Anna knew she'd better keep her thoughts to herself unless she wanted some explosion to happen in her own house.<p>

Jeremy was fine, physically, as Damon had told her. But there was something obviously not right with her brother.

"Please tell me what's wrong with him?" She stared at Anna after closing the door of Jeremy's room behind her. He suddenly fell asleep mid conversation and wasn't exactly fully coherent during it.

"He's as healthy as he can be, but …" She hesitated. "The thing with compulsion is that it really messes with a human's mind." Anna huffed, looking miserable and pained. "We can really rip someone's off of their own will and conscience if we want to, regardless if it drives them to insanity or not. It's a powerful and brutal thing in case of being overused, there will be consequences."

She paused a little, as if trying to find the right words to explain.

"What does that mean exactly?" Elena held her breath. Anna was fidgeting and looking very uncomfortable.

"Let me call a spade a spade for you all." Damon cut in. "Anna just lifted off her compulsion on Jeremy in the same day Stefan put another on him. And by the look of it, Stefan wasn't exactly gentle or careful about it. So Jeremy's brains is like a bowl of overcooked chicken soup right now." He chuckled darkly. "Compulsion needs to be precise and very specific and so as not to cause any side effects. Stefan clearly doesn't give a crap if he fucks up the kid's head or not."

"Side effects?" She finally looked at him, giving up her tactic of not talking to him.

"It's all about timing and how much force we put into it and what result we want." He smirked. "Say, I compel someone not to panic in a moment so I can take a sip from their neck is totally different from compelling them to completely rid of the sense of fear. If I reach too far back in that person's mind, they might not ever experience fear for the rest of their life unless I remove the compulsion. Which basically means I also rip off their survival instinct."

"So what do we do?" Elena swallowed, feeling nauseous at the reminder of Stefan and the idea of how much damage he could have done to Jeremy.

"We can ask Stefan to tell us what exactly he compelled Jeremy and go from there." Damon laughed humorlessly.

"No." Elena shook her head fiercely. Stefan was the last one she wanted to see again.

"_Or_, we can wait and see if Jeremy will be more stable in a few days. He's a little disoriented right now." Anna spoke calmly, trying to ease out the tension. "If Stefan simply gave Jeremy a task and compelled him to do it, then Jeremy will be fine."

"_But if_ Stefan had brainwashed the kid and turned him into his personal human puppet, he'll be, well, a human puppet for the rest of his life unless Stefan has a change of heart." Damon snorted with clear disgust.

"Is that true?" Elena stared at Anna dead in the eyes, searching for a confirmation that Damon was just making another cruel joke.

"We can only wait and see if his mind's clear up in a couple days." She avoided eye-contact but said reassuringly.

* * *

><p>Elena retreated to Jeremy's room after that because she couldn't pay any more attention to what Damon and Anna were discussing any more. She sat solemnly next to Jeremy, staring at her brother's young face and feeling the guilt eat her up inside.<p>

"Dinner time." Damon's voice soft and light behind her. She looked up and saw the light had died out the window. She must have been sitting there for the whole day, and Jeremy was sleeping for that long too.

"I'm not hungry." She had no appetite or interest in eating any more after all these events in the day.

"You can walk to the table or I can carry you out. Your choice." He got closer to her but she didn't turn around.

"I'll wait for Jeremy to wake up and have dinner with him." She said stubbornly.

"That is cute." He mused. "The more he sleeps, the better for him." He took her elbow and pulled slightly. "But you, dinner. Now."

"No." She abruptly broke out of his grip, still not facing him.

"You asked for it." He growled and before she knew what that meant she was turned up side down and found herself draping over a side of his shoulder, his arm circled around the back of her knees as he stood up and started walking out. "Put me down! Are you freaking out of your mind?" She yelled, again remembered how good it felt to shout at him. "Put me down!" She shrieked, kicking her legs like crazy and hurling her arms, pounding against his back.

He ignored her and tightened his arms around her legs. They walked pass a dumb-founded jaw-dropped Anna in the living room and straight into the oval dinning table. He threw her down on a chair, purposely let her land hard on her bum before pulling the chair next to her out and sat down himself.

"If you try to leave that chair, I'll strap you to it. I am very angry, frustrated and very short on patience right now. You'd better not push it." He glowered at her, forcefully pulled the plate and placed the folk and spoon in front of her.

"No!" She yelled back with all the air she had in her lungs. He blinked and Anna jumped back slightly.

"Anna, give us a sec." Suddenly he spoke, sounding surprisingly calm and collected, his eyes never left Elena's. Anna nodded and quickly made herself disappeared behind the room of Jeremy's room. The last thing she saw were Damon and Elena having a stare down, glaring at each other like two fighting bulls under the red flag.

"Stop shrieking." He warned. "Enough shouting for a week day, don't you think?"

"Why did you make her go away?" She barked back. "She's gonna hear us any way. And no I will keep yelling until I get through that obnoxious head of yours that I will not bend backward to please you because you're a freaking vampire!"

"No. I asked Anna to leave because I don't want an audience when I do this." He smirked and as quick and unexpected as he always was, he grabbed her chin, tipped her head up and closed his lips down on hers. She fought back, trying her best to push him back, angrily she grabbed his hair and yanked him back but Damon was all unaffected with her struggling. She bit his lips, trying to detest his kisses. He smirked and took her lower lips in between his teeth, gazed it before slightly bit down on it in revenge. She groaned, that bite sent a shudder down her body, making her stomach clenched.

She was supposed to be disgusted by this but the way her body was reacting told a totally different story. It infuriated her even more how she would never let him mess with her mind and wills but her body always granted him total control over it. She groaned when he tucked her hair back and sucked on her lips. Even the smooching sound their lips made angered her. She placed her hands on his chest and pushed him back.

"You haven't seen angry or frustrated yet!" She glared before lunging herself at him. His chair skidded back a little with her sudden attack, his head tipped back when she aggressively reclaimed his lips with hers. His arms circled around her body, hands kneading on the exposed skin above her jeans. She gripped his hair in fists, tilting his head so she could control the kiss to her rhythm and depth. He let her because it felt all too good, too hot, and maddeningly arousing to have her aggressive tongue battled with his, feeling her nails scratching his nape, her thighs clamping beside him.

She pulled back abruptly, climbed off of his lap and stood back. Damon was bewildered, shocked and tensed up like a string.

"Enjoy your freaking dinner." She wiped her mouth but avoided his eyes and quickly walked back to Jeremy's room.

It was her pay-back, her revenge to show him what he had done to her. Angry? Frustrated? She'd let him know what it tasted like to be angry _and_ frustrated. She'd let him know how it felt like to be kissed and aroused and then left hanging. But her legs were shaking, her blood boiling in her veins, her stomach twisted, the throbbing between her legs were burning. Revenge wasn't so sweet. It was … frustrating. And she wished Damon hadn't let her stop.

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><p><em><strong>Ok. so that was that. I don't have much to say today. Writer blockage sucks! :( <strong>_

_**Thanks to you all who keep supporting this story. You are infinite awesomeness. Let's hope my blockage issue go away soon and next chapter will be better? :) **_

_**Much love.**_

_**xoxo **_


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